Redemption Club
by speed360
Summary: Protoboy joins forces with Dr. Kamikazi and together they plan to take out all of Kamikazi's rivals, destroy Robotboy, and finally take over the world together. They begin with an attack on Bjorn Bjornsons's home which leads Tommy and Robotboy into a series of strange friendships and situations. [i rated it T to b safe i dont kno a dam thing my guy]
1. Angry as usual

It was the middle of the day in Kaziland, although the sky always seemed to be dark and sinister there so its two human inhabitants had more-or-less given up trying to tell the day from night. Constantine was busy making sure his boss' latest pet was shipped off of their island safely. He had thought that getting a puma would be a safe idea (plus they looked very cool and intimidating) but as usual, Dr. Kamikazi had ended up with his face almost ripped off.

"You'd have thought he'd have learned his lesson by now." Constantine muttered to himself. "Oh well! Let's hope his next animal friend is a much kinder boy!"

"CONSTANTINE! GET IN HERE QUICK!" The hunchbacked man heard his Boss' voice bellow out from the secret evil lair (although it wasn't really secret; everyone who knew Kamikazi knew exactly where Kaziland was). He sounded frightened. Also angry. But then again he was always angry. Either way, Constantine knew he had better hurry to see what his Boss wanted before he ended up getting tied to a rocket or forced to lash himself with a whip. Kamikazi had probably gotten his hand stuck in the toaster again or something.

He made his way into the heart of their volcano island home and into Kamikazi's lair.

"Boss, I told you," He began as the doors slid open. "You have to wait at least a minute before the toast pops up or you'll give yourself a hurt finger again-!"

"Constantine…"

When the room came into full view, the man's smile faded.

His Boss was currently being held up in the air by his bathrobe by none other than Moshimo's evil failed prototype robot.

"Protoboy?" Constantine gasped. Then he smiled widely. "Long time no see! How have you been? How's the wife-?"

 **"SHUT UP."** The robot cut him off, still dangling Kamikazi in the air. **"YOU LISTEN TO PROTO."**

"Do what he says." Kamikazi ordered. "If he drops me from this height I'm gonna have to go back to the chiropractor. He's so expensive. I just don't have that kind of budget!"

Constantine nodded. "Okey-dokey. What do you want, Protoboy?"

 **"PROTO WANT JOIN FORCES. YOU _WILL_ ASSIST."** He said. **"WE ALL WANT SAME THING."**

Kamikazi frowned and looked down at his henchman.

"You mean Robotboy?"

"Oh!" Constantine giggled. "I was thinking about tapas. That's what _I_ want."

Both Protoboy and Kamikazi stared at him blankly.

"Anyway, what was that you were saying?" The evil scientist had become very eager about this.

 **"PROTO USED BE ABLE TO FIND BROTHER. NOW BROTHER HAS CLOAKED HIMSELF. CAN'T LOCATE ROBOTBOY'S SIGNAL."** Protoboy continued.

Constantine muttered, "Maybe we should ask him if he could do that to Kaziland."

"Shut up, Constantine!" Kamikazi hissed.

 **"YOU HAVE SURVEILLANCE ON THE HUMAN BOY WHO KEEPS MY BROTHER. SURVEILLANCE ON ALL WHO ALSO WANT HIM. LET ME USE. I FIND AND DESTROY HIM. I DESTROY ALL ASSOCIATED WITH MOSHIMO. NO ONE COME TO RESCUE."**

"Uh…" Kamikazi turned to the fighting robot a little sheepishly. Why was did he gotta be so loud all the time? "What's in it for us? I _do_ need Robotboy in one piece so I can clone him."

Protoboy gave a distorted laugh. **"NO _NEED_ USELESS BROTHER. YOU HELP PROTO; PROTO JOIN YOU. WILL DESTROY ALL RIVALS OF KAMIKAZI. YOU GET WHAT WANT. I SHOW USELESS MOSHIMO HOW GREAT I AM."**

The old scientist's entire face lit up. Protoboy was finally going to help him take over the world? _Finally!_ He was going to get what he'd always dreamed of! Not only that, but all those other annoying villains would be taken out of the game completely? No more competition? General Yakitori, Bjorn, Affenkugel – all of them would be wiped out! No more competition and besides, a clone army of Protoboys may even be more deadly than an army of Robotboys; he wouldn't even need to reprogram Protoboy! He was _already_ destructive and evil.

"Deal!" Kamikazi yelled. "This is the best day of my life!"

"Hooray!" Constantine cheered. "I know! I'll make us all some celebratory tapas!"

Protoboy let go of Kamikazi and he plummeted to the ground, cracking his back when he hit the floor. **"ROBOTS NO EAT FOOD. STUPID MAN."**

" _Okay_. No need to be so rude." Constantine looked down at his Boss who was shriveled in a heap on the ground, twitching. "Boss, you want me to call the chiropractor?"

Kamikazi nodded, unable to speak from the pain.

While Constantine trotted off to get the number that he'd written down somewhere, Protoboy got to work with Kamikazi's surveillance system. Turns out he didn't just keep tabs on Robotboy and the Turnbull household, he also liked to make sure he knew what all his rivals were doing at all times as well. Protoboy, fueled with the thought of finally getting to crush his weak little brother, began to formulate his plan of action. Deciding to team up with Kamikazi had been a strategic move, as world domination was also appealing to the prototype robot. That way, his creator would finally see how powerful he was. He wouldn't be ignored in favor of Robotboy once he had dominated the entire planet along with his nefarious enemy, Dr. Kamikazi. In fact, the fact that it was Kamikazi would just be another kick in the teeth for Moshimo.

Once he had destroyed his brother, the competitors for Robotboy would most likely flock to Kaziland in pure rage. Protoboy was sure that he could defeat them all, but just in case they all somehow banded together and turned out to be quite strong, he decided that taking them all out individually beforehand was the best course of action.

His circuits were practically buzzing with anticipation. He couldn't wait to see them all shrivel beneath him. He would kill _anyone_ close to them; the more they suffered both mentally and physically the better.

Constantine returned with the chiropractor's number and Protoboy remembered that Kamikazi was still just lying there all bent up on the ground.

 **"COME."** Protoboy turned to them and ordered. He jabbed his finger at one of the red pinpointed countries on the screen. **"WE GO NORTHERN OF EUROPE NOW. TAKE OUT FIRST RIVAL."**

Even though Kamikazi was still in excruciating pain, he wheezed in triumph as he recognized the area. "Constantine! Protoboy is going to shoot that brat Bjorn Bjornson!"

While the other two buzzed and laughed in their shared excitement, Constantine bit his lip. "But, Boss, are we really gonna kill a child? Bjorn's like…twelve."

"Don't be such a baby, Constantine! Do you not remember how many times we've tried to get rid of Robotboy's child friends?" Kamikazi scoffed. "Bjorn did this to himself when he entered this game! Besides, he's a considerable threat to us because he's got that fighting robot. It's a good idea to take him out first."

Protoboy nodded in agreement. He had never gotten to fight any machine other than his brother before, but he had heard that Bjorn's robot was almost exactly equally matched in strength and weapons capabilities to Robotboy. Bjorn had previously studied under Professor Moshimo, which filled Protoboy's motherboard with further sparks of disgust. He couldn't wait to put an end to that robot's existence. It would be like practice for when he finally got to tear his brother apart.

"Okey-dokey, Boss." Constantine sighed as he watched Kamikazi and Protoboy prepare for their first attack. "Just don't expect me to _watch_."


	2. Emergency Distress Signal

"Yo, yo! The G-Man wins again!" Gus exclaimed and jumped up triumphantly.

"Gus." Tommy sighed. "You can't just make up rules when you're losing at cards."

"I'm not _losing_! As you can see, I just won."

"Right, fine. I give up." Tommy looked over his deck of cards at his best friend, who was currently staring in fascination at the pictures in a wildlife magazine. Lola must have left it here in his room when she was last here. "Ro, you agree with me right? Gus cheated."

"Hey! Don't all gang up on me!" The chubby boy whined crossly while shovelling yet more chips into his mouth.

Robotboy tore his optical sensors away from an extremely confusing image of a giraffe ( _what was this creature?)_ and nodded. "Robotboy no see, but Robotboy also know Gus _always_ cheat."

Gus stared at the table and grumbled. "I still won. Shut up."

Tommy chuckled. "Whatever. Anyway, you wanna play something else? How about-"

He was interrupted by a sudden harsh beeping signal that had begun emitting from his robot friend. Robotboy looked as startled as he and Gus were.

"Woah, what's that?" Tommy asked, concerned. "Your enemy robot detector? Since when did it make that noise?"

"No!" Roboyboy shot up and shook his head. "Emergency Distress Signal!"

"Aw, cool!" Gus grinned widely. "Are you gonna go kick someone into next year? I wanna watch!"

Tommy frowned. He remembered Professor Moshimo briefly mentioning the Distress Signal and how it worked. Fighting robots with the signal function fitted would automatically send one out when their lives were in danger, incapacitating them from helping the ones they protected. It would be sent to any other fighting robot in their memory logs; it didn't differentiate between friend and enemy.

"Where's it coming from?" Tommy asked.

Robotboy had been sent the coordinates to the location as soon as the signal had reached him; he knew his friend wouldn't like it.

"That Schlitvard town?" Tommy blinked. "Ro, that's a trap. That's where Bjorn lives, remember?"

Robotboy clenched his tiny fists in anxious anticipation. "Tommy! Have to go!"

"No way, dude." Gus laughed. "I mean, even though it would be a pretty bangin' fight, Tommy's right! So blatantly a trap."

" _No!_ _Have to!_ " The small robot cried desperately. "Robot code!"

Tommy groaned. "Buddy, y'know nothing will actually happen to you if you don't follow the fighting robot code, right? You don't have to fly right into a trap just because the code says you're obliged to answer the distress signals."

"Tommy no understand! Signal involuntary!" Robotboy tried to explain desperately. "Involuntary! Used for worst, most desperate moments only! _Impossible_ for be activated manually."

Tommy frowned. "I don't know...Bjorn could have just dunked Bjornbot in the bathtub or something to make him send that signal."

"Woah, guys. It's getting deep." Gus stared at them both like he was watching a movie. "Do I still have that popcorn I left here from last month?"

Robotboy looked towards Tommy pleadingly. He _really_ wanted to go and respond to that signal. His blonde friend thought hard; it _did_ seem a bit weird. He had never even seen the Emergency Distress Signal in use before; Robotboy had certainly never had to send one out and they had all been in some _pretty_ dire situations before. He thought about what would even need to happen for a fighting robot to involuntarily call their enemies for emergency backup. Was someone _dead?_ Did Bjorn die?

Tommy looked up at Robotboy and smiled nervously. "I'm sorry, Ro. I shouldn't have argued with you. You know what you're doing; I trust you."

The small robot smiled, relieved.

"But I'm coming with you, of course!"

"Of course!" Robotboy repeated.

"And! Don't forget the G-Man." Gus had leapt onto the couch before anyone had even noticed he wasn't at the table anymore. "D'you honestly think I'm gonna miss out on this?"

"Just don't do anything stupid." Tommy climbed onto the couch next to him, as it'd already been established that that was gonna be their primary mode of transport for the journey. "Wait. Actually, forget I said that. That's too much to ask of you."

"Okay! Hold tight, guys!" Using his rocket powered fight, Robotboy picked up the sofa and they made their exit through the window.

* * *

The snow-covered mountain was billowing black smoke and dust. Kamikazi and Constantine watched from a safe distance in their helicopter that they'd positioned above Bjorn's household; the back half of which had been reduced to glass and rubble.

"Look, Constantine!" Kamikazi was jumping up and down like an excited child as he stared at the screen in their vehicle that was giving them a closer view of what was going on below them. He didn't even care that his back was still cricked; this was _way_ too thrilling to not get excited about. "You're missing it, you big fat baby! I think Protoboy is going to finish him off!"

"Oh, stop it Boss." His henchman was facing the other way with his hands over his eyes. "I told you I wasn't gonna watch. Just tell me when it's done, okay?"

"Suit yourself." The scientist kept his eyes glued on the monitor. They hadn't made this much evil progress in…forever! Protoboy had come to them like a very angry blessing.

On the ground, Protoboy surveyed what was left of the room he was in. The walls had been almost completely blasted apart and there were so many holes in the roof now that it might as well just be one massive skylight.

He was so _proud_ that he was responsible for this much destruction. He hadn't felt this powerful in years. He was feeling all these strong, fierce _things_ and he loved it. He wanted to feel them forever. He didn't know what they _were_ , but he felt them in his core and the power of destruction made him feel them intensely.

He looked down at his feet at the battered humanoid machine that had attempted to stop him from carrying out his plan. Over in the corner, beside one of the desks that had also been blown full of holes, a blonde suited child was slumped over a woman who Protoboy guessed was his mother. Bjorn had just been on the floor shaking and crying ever since she had collapsed. The prototype robot hadn't even noticed when it had happened; he'd been too busy trying to snub out Bjornbot's existence. She must have been hit by flying debris or maybe she had even been hit by his weapons? It didn't matter. The blonde child's audible suffering was enough indication that his plan was going well. He had kept him alive deliberately, so he could bear witness to his robot brother's extinction.

Protoboy couldn't break human beings apart like he could robots; it wasn't satisfying to him at all, but breaking humans _emotionally_ was almost as fun as smashing fellow machines apart.

He looked down at Bjornbot who was collapsed at his feet. When he had first arrived at their home, the silver haired robot was called and ordered to attack. The building was quickly shot to bits. He had quite enjoyed fighting Bjornbot at first; it was interesting to battle a robot other than his brother. Although, after a while he began to notice the similarities in their fighting style and although Bjornbot was a lot more aggressive in general than Robotboy, his movements reminded Protoboy of his brother _so much_. He was enraged the more he watched him. Moshimo's influence was _everywhere._

Not only that, but seeing Bjornbot's power being wasted on protecting two singular human lives just solidified his opinion that weak-minded robots who served humans should just be wiped out. Seeing his mother figure collapse majorly threw Bjornbot off, and it was easy from then on. Protoboy had shot repeatedly into the ball joint that worked to allow his right leg mobility, ultimately rendering him unsteady and unable of fast reactions. He had shot one of the face plates on his cheek off, exposing the slowly whirring machinery and wires that held his face together. As a response to Bjorn's pleas for him to stop, Protoboy punched through his robot's chest plate and yanked out a handful of wires, holding them in his palm for a while like a battle trophy.

Although weakened and severely damaged at this point, Protoboy noticed that Bjornbot still kept trying to get up. How _dare_ this other machine come into his house and hurt his mother and make his brother cry? He didn't even care if he was obliterated; what he was most distressed about was that if he was gone, this homicidal robot would have absolutely no trouble killing Bjorn. Humans were so helpless and soft. He attempted to summon one of his arm weapons, but the weak robot just creaked. He didn't have the strength.

Protoboy lifted his right food and pressed it down on Bjornbot's head.

 **"WHY DO YOU TRY?"** Protoboy taunted. **"YOU'RE WEAK. JUST LIKE BROTHER. EVERY ROBOT CORRUPTED BY HUMAN EMOTION: WEAK. WILL _ALWAYS_ FAIL."**

Bjornbot twitched in anger. That was what Bjorn always used to say. Human emotion in machines was like a computer virus, he said. Giving battle robots emotions made them soft and less efficient. He didn't want Bjornbot to be like Moshimo's creation. He needed him to be stronger.

But without an emotion chip, he thought, would he ever have known the feeling of loving his brother? Or his mother? He remembered back when he felt nothing but rage and impulsive violence and it was so dull. When he persuaded Bjorn to let him try just _half_ the emotion chip that was installed in Robotboy, he could feel such a range! Mostly manic excitement, which caused more harm than good a lot of the time, but he knew what "enjoying something" was now! He always got so excited to carry out his brother's plans to catch and destroy Robotboy. He remembered the fake sleepover and how fun that was, and the time they invented and rigged an entire sporting games event just to blow Robotboy up. He always looked forward to fighting Robotboy. He looked forward to making Bjorn happy. He loved Bjorn's mother, who had accepted him completely as her own son. She called him her 'metal son'. He had became very protective of his family thanks to this "Love" emotion.

 _Was it worth it though?_

If he had remained a completely emotionless killing machine rather than a killing machine who could coincidentally feel some things that human beings could, would this have happened? Would his mother still be okay? Would Bjorn survive?

 _Was Protoboy right?_

Through his rapidly failing vision, he heard the familiar sound of Protoboy's arm cannon powering up above him. He heard Bjorn crying above the noise and begging him not to shoot. The robot hoped with every circuit in his mashed up body that he would just shoot him and leave his helpless creator alive. He was just felt so sorry that he couldn't have been better.

He couldn't hear well at all as Protoboy had damaged the noise receptors in his ear, but he suddenly saw the edge of this massive dust cloud appear from nowhere.

 _Now_ what happened?

He made out three figures appear in the doorway; two of them were human-shaped and the other one, the one in the middle, was smaller and he could make out two blue blobs that looked like they were attached to the head.

From way above him, he heard Kamikazi yell, "What are _they_ doing here?!"

Bjorn had stopped whimpering, but Bjornbot didn't know for sure whether that was good or bad because he couldn't move from the ground or see at all very well. He heard Protoboy shouting and the dull thud of explosions start to go off everywhere, shaking the entire house. He was almost completely drained of battery. He was so tired. One of the blurry figures ducked past all the lasers being fired across the room and was suddenly knelt right over him.

Wait. _This_ was the blonde boy who was always with Robotboy! If this guy wanted him to do anything, he really couldn't at the moment. He was so tired and his battery was almost dead. Oh. Maybe he should tell him that. "Sleep" was one of the only English words he actually knew how to say.

He wasn't even sure if it came out understandable because he couldn't hear himself anymore, but he saw the human boy above him smile and nod.

"I know." Tommy's tone was gentle but he made sure to be loud enough that the damaged robot could make out what he was saying. "You get some sleep. You did so well! We're gonna take over now. It'll be okay."

The blonde boy was fading from sight; Bjornbot was so glad. He had never been so happy to see Robotboy.


	3. i love free food

Tommy sat with Robotboy beside him on Bjorn's couch, feeling ridiculously out of place. The couch was one of the only things that hadn't been completely destroyed during the combination of both fights. Bjorn only had three family members as far as Tommy had ever seen in their house, including himself. What was the need for all this space in their house? Why were the ceilings so high? Or, rather, why _had_ they been so high - seeing as the roof had been shot to bits and the majority of the walls had been stripped to their foundations. It was weird to think they were now sitting in the house of someone who Tommy had once thought of as a moderate threat to himself  & his robotic best friend.

The boy glanced over at the desk beside them at Bjornbot, who looked like he'd been in a fight with a car compacter. After making sure an ambulance was called for Bjorn's mother, seeing as Bjorn was in some kind of shock-state when they tried to talk to him, Tommy had realized that with everything in his living room destroyed including most of his robotics equipment, there was no way he could fix his robot. Pushing aside all the ridiculousness that Bjorn had put them through in the past, he automatically empathized with him. He wouldn't know what to do if something like this had happened to Robotboy and he was left with absolutely nothing. He couldn't help his mother or rebuild his house, but at least he could help repair Bjornbot.

He usually wouldn't have been so forgiving, but witnessing what Protoboy had done made him feel really awful for that whole family. Especially their mother, who'd never even done anything wrong.

"Where do you think Kamikaze went?" Tommy whispered over to Robotboy . As if thinking the same thing, they both stared up at the largest gaping hole in the ceiling, where Kamikazi's helicopter had been positioned. Before Robotboy had shot it down, of course.

Robotboy shrugged and muttered, "Can't tell."

Tommy could see that he had been thinking about running into Protoboy again. He had managed to push him back and knock his batteries out, rendering him a useless robot doll. As the majority of their battle had taken place above Bjorn's house, since Robotboy thought it wise to bate him up there and minimize any further damage to the structure, he wasn't sure if Protoboy had ended up being recovered by Kamikazi or not when he fell to the ground. Though he wouldn't admit it to Tommy at the time, he had been very thrown by suddenly coming face to face with his older brother. He hated that Protoboy's only instincts seemed to be to destroy everyone and everything around him, but Tommy knew that he would always feel upset each time he had to fight and defeat him. Although Robotboy denied seeing Protoboy as family after everything he'd done to him and his friends, he was still _technically_ his brother. That would feel harsh on anyone with a conscience.

Kamikaze wasn't usually much of a worry, Tommy thought, as they would frequently just defeat him & he & Constantine would fly back to Kaziland & try again in a few more days, but Protoboy teaming up with him made everything slightly more dangerous. If he and Robotboy hadn't have gotten there when they did, without doubt Protoboy would have murdered Bjorn and his mother by now.

Come to think of it, where did Gus go? He was with them up until a few minutes ago. He had probably gone off to hunt for free food.

They both turned as the automatic doors slid open. Tommy didn't really know how to prepare himself; he had no idea what Bjorn's mental state was like at this point. He'd just seen his mother off in an ambulance, his robot was damaged to the point of forced shutdown, and his house was destroyed past the point of being livable. Tommy opened his mouth to ask if he was alright, but the other boy just shoved a bowl of ice cream towards him. He was wearing an almost hospitable smile, something Tommy had never seen on Bjorn before.

"Seeing as the fridge was nearly destroyed, I felt we should celebrate!" Bjorn said cheerfully. "Celebrate the things we almost lost!"

Tommy glanced nervously at Robotboy, who seemed to be sensing the same unsteady atmosphere. It was different from when Bjorn had been clearly lying about something or pretending to be friendly to get Robotboy; Tommy felt differently about his current behavior. He remembered that Moshimo, Bjorn's former teacher himself, had told Tommy that Bjorn wasn't exactly mentally stable when they had first met.

"Uh, thanks." Tommy took the bowl uneasily. "Don't you want some?"

"I'm fine!" Bjorn replied with the same manic cheerfulness, his eyes darting to the tv set. "Your lot like cartoons, right? We'll see what's on here. Look! Bjornbot hasn't smashed this one yet."

Robotboy tilted his head to the side slightly as the blonde boy went to operate the TV set that was clearly, visibly broken.

"Bjorn okay?" He asked, softer than usual. He had also picked up on Tommy's concern for their former enemy & had began to worry as well.

Before Bjorn could even turn round, or _anyone_ could say anything, Gus leaped up out of nowhere  & practically tackled Tommy off of the couch.

"Ice cream!" He yelled.

" _Gus,_ what the hell?"

"I didn't know you guys were having ice cream! You didn't say anythin'!"

Tommy sighed as he just let Gus grab the bowl from his hands & start devouring the ice cream.

"Where did you even go?" Tommy asked.

"Oh I was just walking around!" Gus said casually with his mouth full. "There's so much cool stuff in here, dude! There are reindeers outside! I didn't know they were _real._ "

"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself." Tommy said flatly.

"Got anymore ice cream?" Gus moved to hold the empty bowl out to Bjorn but Tommy slapped his hand away. _Why was Gus always like this?_

"I think we'd better go, actually." He said firmly, standing up. Robotboy moved to follow him. He thought that lingering for any longer in Bjorn's house would just become a bit of a nuisance; he would probably need time alone after what had just happened. Certainly having someone like Gus hanging around and eating all the food in the fridge wasn't going to help. Besides, Tommy felt like the quicker he got home & fixed Bjornbot and bought him back to his creator, the sounder Bjorn's mind would be.

"Oh!" Bjorn's dark eyes were slightly wider than usual. "You don't _have_ to go-"

Tommy glanced at Robotboy and after receiving a quick nod, they both non verbally agreed that it was the best thing to do.

"No, it's okay." Tommy smiled. "We won't bother you any longer. I don't think Protoboy or Kamikazi will come back; they think they eliminated everyone in the house."

"Anyway!" Robotboy chipped in. "You go visit mother? No need us there!"

"Visit …mother?" Bjorn questioned, as if he was completely unfamiliar with what the robot had just suggested.

"Yeah, you got her patient number from those paramedics in the ambulance, right? You can just go see her whenever you like." Tommy smiled, which quickly turned into an annoyed frown as Gus tugged at his sleeve like some sort of impatient toddler.

"Tommy I just realized! The store closes at 10! We're not gonna have any snacks tonight!" Gus whined.

"You mean _you_ won't have any snacks. Who says you're coming to my house?"

"I'll think you'll find, the G-Man is welcome in your home 24/7. Your mom said so."

"My mom just says that to be nice, y'know that right? It doesn't mean you can literally camp out in my bedroom every single day. And I have to fix Bjornbot, remember? I'm not gonna have time for you."

"Well, we can hang out on our own, can't we, Ro?" Gus smirked. The blue robot blinked, then beamed innocently back at Tommy.

"Robotboy want hang out with Tommy!"

Gus scowled at being rejected and started to walk towards the door. Tommy wasn't that worried though; Gus didn't even know where they were or how to get home so he couldn't go anywhere without Robotboy and his GPS tracking.

"Ro, could you carry Bjornbot back to the couch-mobile?" Tommy asked, to which his metal companion smiled and nodded.

Tommy turned back to Bjorn who was starting to look like some kind of lost dog.

"It won't take long to fix him. In the meantime, you can go and visit your mother? Or maybe get some people in to repair the damage? I mean, obviously go stay with some friends or relatives in the meantime since you can't really stay here." He gestured several of the large holes & scorch marks that dotted the walls. The other child didn't reply, so Tommy just smiled awkwardly and moved to turn round. "Um…okay! I'll contact you when he's ready."

Tommy was almost at the door, wondering to himself if Gus had helped himself to whatever food he could find while he went on that 'walk' earlier, when Bjorn called out to him, making him jump a bit.

"Wait!"

"What is it?" He turned round in surprise.

"Well…." Bjorn had his eyes fixed on the ground, almost in shame. He then sparked up again as if he had remembered something. "That's right! My brother has never been activated outside our house before! He's never been apart from me so he might get confused and attack you after you fix him. Not to mention he's literally been trained to destroy Robotboy whenever he sees him."

"Oh, yeah. That's true." Tommy sighed. "What do I do then? I don't really fancy having my room shot to pieces."

"I could…come with you! If he sees me there and I tell him not to do anything he'll be fine."

Tommy frowned. It did make a lot of sense, but it _was_ a bit reminiscent of the usual "Catch Robotboy" plans that multiple individuals, including this boy, had been coming up with since Robotboy had come into his life. After such a long amount of time spent dealing with these people, it was pretty reasonable for Tommy to be suspicious.

Bjorn registered the look as something completely different & shook his head. "It's not that I'm _scared_ to be alone in this house after you leave! I'm not scared go and visit Mama alone either. And _obviously_ I've got other people to stay with. I'm just, actually, doing a _good thing_ and looking out for you."

Tommy's frown softened.

" _Alright._ " He sighed. "You can come with us. But you'd _better_ not try anything weird."

"Of course not!" Bjorn sounded relieved and giddy as he rushed to follow Tommy out the door.

"Good! Because don't think I won't tell Gus to sit on you if you do."


	4. shut up

It didn't take them long to arrive back at the Bay Area from where Bjorn lived. Robotboy had quickly transported them across the Atlantic on the couch-mobile (Tommy and Gus got some sleep during the ride; Bjorn pretended to sleep but really he was too worried about his mother & Bjornbot to get any rest at all). Getting his friends back home safely had at least provided Robotboy with a distraction from thinking about Protoboy. Why did his brother have to be like this? Why couldn't they just be a family? It didn't matter now; the little robot forced himself to set his mind on more pressing issues. If Protoboy showed up to attack them again, he would _have_ to get rid of him for sure. It would hurt, and it would feel awful, but he wasn't going to allow his evil brother to hurt his friends anymore. He would have to make sure Protoboy was gone for good.

They arrived back at Tommy's house at around 4am. Robotboy gently placed the couch back in their living room, as not to wake up Tommy's family. Gus jerked awake and started mumbling about how he didn't like radishes & how they were evil so Tommy had to smack him to make sure he didn't wake anyone up. Normally they could just deactivate Robotboy if any of his family showed up, and Gus was round at Tommy's house so frequently that no one would find it weird at all. However, it would be tougher to explain where Bjorn had suddenly appeared from; and did Bjornbot even have a deactivated mode? Would they have to shove him in the closet?

Tommy groaned internally as he recalled Bjorn's utter social ineptitude and thought about him just walking up and introducing himself to his mom at 4 in the morning. They were gonna get in _so_ much trouble if they got caught.

"Guys, quietly. Go up to my bedroom." Tommy whispered, motioning them all to go up the stairs.

" _Okay!"_ Robotboy mimicked his best friend's tone of voice as best he could. He picked up Bjornbot and headed upstairs.

"Tommy! I just remembered I have half a hot dog bun in your fridge!"

" _Gus, shush!"_

"Hey, Tommy? Where's the rest of your house? Why does your guest room have stairs?"

" _Shut up, Wackjob!"_ Tommy hissed. "This _is_ my whole house? _Sorry_ I'm not rich and my house isn't on top of a mountain."

Robotboy turned round & made a shushing gesture. "Everyone make too much noise!"

"Tommy, I'm really feeling that hot dog bun right now!"

" _Gus! I swear to-"_

Suddenly, the familiar click of a light switch sounded from down the corridor and they all froze.

"Heck… _go, go!_ " Tommy began dashing up the stairs and the others soon followed. They all made it into Tommy's bedroom before any of them got seen. Gus dived under Tommy's bed covers as soon as the door was shut safely behind them.

Having placed the unconscious Bjornbot down on Tommy's worktable, Robotboy floated up to his friend.

"Anyone coming?" He asked, in the lowest tone he could.

Tommy listened at the door for a while. After hearing no further noise: no doors opening, no footsteps, he decided that they were safe. Hopefully it was just his dad who had woken up briefly and dismissed the noises as sounds from his dream or something.

"No, I think we're good." Tommy sighed in relief and gave the thumbs up to his robot friend. "Wait…where's Gus?"

Bjorn walked over and slapped the quivering Gus-shaped mound on Tommy's bed.

"Found the boy!"

Gus leaped up in shock, the bed sheet flying off of him and hitting the ceiling. "Abandon ship! Every man for himself!"

" _Guys!_ I'm _this_ close to smacking both of you!" Tommy hissed in exasperation. "Gus, you're gonna have to go home if you don't shut up. Do you _want_ Donnie to wake up and beat us all up?"

"It's okay, I'll just pretend to be dead." The ginger boy smirked, masking his obvious fear. "Works every time."

" _I'm_ not scared of your brother." Bjorn said. "I'll just have Bjornbot-"

"Bjornbot is _damaged_ , remember?" Tommy sighed. "I still have to fix him, Wackjob."

"...oh yeah."

"Well, we're screwed." Gus began crawling on the floor, attempting to locate the safety blanket again. "Robotboy! Protect us!"

Robotboy giggled. "All Gus have do is be quiet!"

"Yeah, that's easier said than done." Tommy rolled his eyes. It was like looking after a couple of babies. He turned to the unconscious robot who was lying on his worktable and realized what a weird day it had been. He had barely gotten any sleep and although he was tired (and irritated), the sudden excitement that came with working on a robot he'd never worked on before gave him a burst of energy. Also, the sooner he fixed Bjornbot the better; Bjorn could _go home_ and stop contributing to all the noise. That, and he did admit to himself that he felt empathy for the other boy; he would be in the same nervous state if anything like this happened to Robotboy and he couldn't fix him.

"Well guys, the G-Man's had a long day. I'm gonna catch some z's."

Tommy turned round to see Gus tucking himself into his bed.

"Gus, what are you doing? Go sleep on the floor!" He was _this_ close to grabbing Gus by the legs and chucking him out when he realized that their other guest was curled up and almost asleep on his bed as well.

"Bjorn-"

"Nej, Mama. Not now…"

Tommy sighed. "Just to warn you; Gus _will_ roll over in the middle of the night and crush you."

Bjorn smiled and muttered some slurred Swedish, indicating he hadn't heard a word.

"Fine. Don't say I didn't warn you."

It was probably for the best that they were both sleeping; they would be less annoying and disruptive once they had gotten some rest. Maybe.

Robotboy sat by Tommy, watching curiously as he unscrewed and removed Bjornbot's chest plate and inspected his singed insides.

"Thought so; he's badly damaged internally as well."

Robotboy 's ears drooped as he started into the battered innards of the other machine. He still felt conflicted about Bjornbot, seeing as every other time they had come across each other it had been because Bjorn had wanted to fight and destroy him, but the fact that both Bjorns had actually been allowed into Tommy's house put him at ease a bit. After all, he trusted Tommy with his life! His friend was clever and wise and knew a lot more about the human world and human relations than he himself did. If Tommy deemed them safe, then he would be trusting too.

"Tommy can fix?" The little robot asked quietly, glancing up at his blonde friend.

Tommy noticed Robotboy's concerned look and gave him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, buddy. I'm sure it won't be too difficult. Professor Moshimo did say that Bjorn was his protégé; I wouldn't be surprised if he's built quite similar to how Moshimo built you."

Robotboy smiled at this, letting out a happy beeping sound.

On the subject of Moshimo, Tommy wondered briefly if he should call him. He was _almost_ completely sure that he could repair Bjornbot, but it would be comforting to get some help from the expert. But then again, it was so early in the morning and he didn't want to wake the Professor. He didn't want to worry him either by telling him about Protoboy. Also, would he be angry that he had invited Bjorn and his robot into his house? He wasn't exactly sure what their history was. He had never really asked the Professor about it.

Tommy thought about it and decided not to contact him until the morning.

A high-pitched bleeping noise coming from Robotboy pulled the boy from his thoughts; he was alarmed until his sleep deprived brain realized it was just that Robotboy's battery was low.

"Go deactive?" Robotboy asked.

"I think so. You should charge up for tomorrow, in case something else happens." Tommy smiled.

"Okay, Tommy. Will be okay?"

"I'll be fine, Ro. Don't worry."

* * *

Tommy worked on Bjornbot for two more hours, long after everyone else had gone to bed. It was 6am when he heard his dad getting up; God knows why seeing it as it was a Sunday morning. He was probably sneaking into the kitchen to eat the cake that was in the fridge and blame it on 'rouge squirrels' like he always did.

The process was taxing at first and Tommy worked cautiously as he was afraid of doing something wrong, but once he became more familiar with Bjorn's robot he became more confident. He had been right: Bjornbot didn't look _too_ dissimilar to Robotboy when he was opened up. It was fortunate, because it meant he had a lot of spare parts and components lying around that he could use to replace Bjornbot's damaged ones.

He was exhausted by the time he finished; the sun being up reminding him how long he'd been awake and how he _really_ needed to get some sleep. He finished off screwing in one of the bits of his face plate that had been blown off and repaired the crack in his right optical sensor.

"That should be it." He said to himself quietly. Thank God. He wouldn't know for sure until he reactivated Bjornbot, but he would leave that until when he had gotten some rest. Preferably when Bjorn was awake as well; he didn't want Bjornbot shooting a hole in his wall in confusion after he had spent all that time fixing him.

Since Gus and Bjorn were asleep in his bed, he pulled one of the sleeping bags that he used for tent sleepovers with Gus and Lola and went to bed next to where Robotboy was recharging.

There were chips in that sleeping bag and it was very uncomfortable. He'd have to talk to Gus about this in the morning. It kept happening.


	5. dont talk to my mom about herring

"He's moving! He's moving-"

"Dude, shh!"

Tommy woke up to two blurry figures standing above him, stifling their laughter.

He rubbed his eyes so they could adjust and recognised Gus' mischievous face instantly.

"What did you do?" Tommy asked flatly.

Gus' face snapped into (what he probably considered) a pokerface.

" _Nothing."_

Bjorn couldn't contain himself though and burst out laughing.

Tommy sighed and pushed past them and stared into his mirror. _Obviously_ they'd drawn all over his face while he was asleep. They'd gone for the typical glasses and mustache look.

"Thanks, guys."

"You're welcome! It suits you!" Gus let out all his held in laughter and joined Bjorn in hysterics. "You're gonna get all the ladies now!"

Although it was annoying, he couldn't help but smile at the fact that Gus and Bjorn were _actually_ getting on. Maybe they had bonded over their combined lack of morality while he'd been asleep.

"Did anything happen while I was asleep?" Tommy asked. "Kamikazi didn't show up did he? Or Protoboy?"

"Nah, dude." Gus said. "The only thing that happened is that Bjorn was crying like a little baby when I woke up, so that was funny."

"I wasn't _crying!_ I was suffocating!"

"Yeah, yeah. That's what they all say."

"You rolled onto me and were crushing my rib cage, you fat oaf!"

"Hey! Don't insult the G-Man. I got skills!" Gus made some kind of kung fu pose and Bjorn scoffed. "You wanna catch these hands?"

"You hid under a blanket and cried last night; I'm not threatened by you."

Tommy sighed and started cleaning the pen off of his face in the mirror as they continued arguing. So much for them getting on. Good thing that nothing _actually_ bad had happened though. Protoboy was still out there, but at least he hadn't tried to sneak up on them while they were asleep.

"What are you guys doing?" Tommy jumped at the sudden female voice and turned around to see Lola in the doorway.

"Lola? When did you get here?"

"Oh she came ages ago! I sent her a message saying Protoboy came back and it was gonna be a bangin' fight!" Gus grinned, then went back to insulting Bjorn.

"Oh. Sorry if you've just been waiting around, I was asleep."

"It's okay." Lola smiled and came to sit next to Tommy. "I had my phone, so I wasn't bored. By the way, who _is_ that?"

"Oh, that's Bjorn Bjornson. I think I've told you about him?" Tommy laughed a bit, realizing that Lola had never actually had to deal with Bjorn. She had been in their class when he and Bjornbot had posed as transfer students to get to Robotboy but that was the last time she ever saw him.

" _Oh!_ That weirdo with the robot double?" Lola asked. "Why is he here? Are you guys friends now?"

Tommy shrugged. "I wouldn't really say we're friends. Protoboy attacked his home with Kamikazi and Constantine. His mom was really badly injured and she's in hospital, and most of his equipment was destroyed and Bjornbot was really badly damaged so I took him back here to fix him."

Lola looked pleasantly surprised. "That was really nice of you, Tommy."

"Yeah, I guess."

"I'm gonna go see what's for lunch! It's like 1 in the afternoon, y'know!" Gus piped up.

"I'll go back to bed then!" Bjorn contributed.

" _What?_ Are you five?" Gus yelled in shock. "Who in their right mind would choose going to bed over eating lunch? We woke up like an hour ago!"

"Don't be silly; we only had about five hours."

Gus snorted with laughter.

"You're such a melt. Do you have to get, like, 10 hours sleep per day or your mommy yells at you?"

Not realizing Gus was being sarcastic, Bjorn replied, "Ja, _obviously?_ "

While Gus was literally rolling on the floor and laughing so hard there were tears in his eyes and Bjorn was standing there without a clue, there was a sudden knock at the door.

Tommy panicked and motioned for them all to be quiet. Lola smacked Gus in the face with a pillow. It was fine; Robotboy was still in deactivated mode and Tommy had put Bjornbot under his desk in case anyone came in while they were asleep.

"Come in!"

There was collective relief from Tommy, Gus and Lola when it was only Tommy's mom. If it was Dwight, they'd probably be being roped into some stupid ball game with him and Tommy's violent big brother.

"Oh, your friends are here! Hi, kids."

"Hi, Mrs Turnbull!" They all echoed back.

"Tommy, could you go to the store for me?" Deb asked. "We're out of bread."

"Aw, mom-"

"If you go to the store it'll give you an excuse not to go to that football game with Donnie and your father. I know how much you hate sports."

"Actually! Of course I will!" Tommy was very thankful that his mother understood that he and his dad would never share the same interests.

"Thanks, honey!" Deb smiled and shut the door.

Gus had made himself comfortable at Tommy's computer and was watching some video on Youtube. "Bring me back one of those giant bags of marshmallows, yeah?"

"Shut up, Gus." Tommy rolled his eyes. "Right, to be honest I don't really trust you in my house without me here, Bjorn. You're coming to the store with me."

" _What?_ I'm very trustworthy!"

"Yeah, yeah. I know of more bad things you've done than good things. Actually, I've never seen you do _anything_ good, _ever._ You're coming to the store."

The Scandinavian realized he wasn't really in a place to argue with him so he just sat on the bed and slipped his shoes on.

"But I'm tired…"

"Oh, well! I'm sorry, but I'm not leaving you in my house with Robotboy _and_ your robot. Who says you won't just activate Bjornbot and have them have one of your stupid massive fights?"

"Actually, that does sound like me."

"Exactly. Also I'm not buying you anything." Tommy turned to Lola. "Look after Robotboy? And make sure to call me if Protoboy or Kamikazi show up! Gus, stay away from my food. And-"

"Tommy, dude!" Gus groaned from the computer table. "You're just going to the store! It's not that deep!"

"Don't worry, I'll make sure nothing bad happens." Lola gave Tommy a thumbs up sign and he gave her a grateful smile. He could always count on Lola to keep the situation under control.

"Right, come on, Wackjob." He nudged Bjorn's shoulder. "Don't talk to my mom about herring if you see her downstairs either."

"I hate herring! Does your mom like herring-?"

"I don't _know!_ Just _hurry up!_ "

* * *

When Tommy and Bjorn had left, Lola busied herself reading a magazine on Tommy's bed. Gus was busy laughing at various Youtube videos of people falling over or skateboarding into ponds. Even after an hour that got boring though.

"Yo, this is dead. Should we just activate Robotboy?" He groaned. "How long are they gonna take? Did Bjorn hold up the store?"

Lola sighed, turning the page of her magazine. "I hope not. And no; Tommy said we can't."

"Actually, I hope he did! Maybe they'll bring me back a fat bag of marshmallows!"

Lola sighed and mumbled under her breath. _"You're a fat bag of marshmallows."_

"What'd you say?"

"Nothing. I'm gonna go use the bathroom." Lola smirked and hopped off the bed.

Gus watched her leave the room and groaned with boredom. There were two super advanced fighting robots in one room and he was _still_ bored! Maybe he would just activate Robotboy anyway; it wouldn't be the first time he'd just ignored Tommy.

He walked over to Robotboy's charging station and reached to pick him up, when the desk suddenly caught his eye.

"Oh _yeah!_ " The ginger boy's eyes lit up with excitement. Tommy didn't say anything about switching Bjornbot on! He grabbed the deactivated robot from behind and dragged him to Tommy's work desk. He was definitely heavier than Robotboy, so it was a bit of a struggle. Gus snickered to himself as his mind reeled off ridiculous fantasies like training Bjornbot to steal candy for him or using him as a body guard against various bullies like Donnie and Kurt.

He finally found his activation switch at the back of his neck and, giddy with excitement, flicked the switch.

Bjornbot's eyes clicked open with a beeping sound and as Gus was still holding him upright, he could feel the whir of his gears start up through his back. Easy! Just like starting up a human-shaped computer.

Bjornbot turned and suddenly his peripheral vision was filled with Gus' grinning face. He beeped in surprise and after scooting away across the desk surface in shock, the robot blinked as his scanners filled with question marks.

"Wow, cool!" Gus breathed. It was so weird seeing him up so close! Gus watched as his head jerked manically, searching all over the unfamiliar room. He moved to kneel on the table, his position still defensive, and checked under the desk. "Okay, okay!" Gus tapped him on the shoulder roughly and the robot's head jerked to face him.

That's not Bjorn.

"So, anyway, I'm the G-Man and I'm your new master, 'kay?" He put his hands on his hips and attempted to display authority. "Your first order is, go get me a-"

Bjornbot suddenly stood up on the desk. His red pupils seemed to glow even brighter as he stood taller than Gus now that the human was still standing on the floor. Gus paled at the familiar sound of robot weapons starting up, and he was all-too suddenly staring into the barrel of Bjornbot's left arm cannon.

He yelled in terror over the sound of the gun powering up to blast him to bits. He attempted to run away but he'd gotten jelly legs and just fell to the ground.

"N-no, no! Don't kill me!" He pleaded and shriveled into a ball and covered his head with his arms, shaking. "Please! Pretty please! I dunno what I did, but I'm sorry!"

None of Gus' whining pleas made any sense to Bjornbot; he couldn't even really remember who this guy was. There were vague logs of his appearance in his memory bank but he wasn't anyone important to him. No one was really _that_ important to him. Except-

"Bjorn!" He demanded, his voice glitching a little from using it for the fast time after being so badly damaged. He pressed the edge of his arm cannon to Gus' head to get the human to look up at him. Gus whimpered; he could _feel_ the heat coming off of that weapon.

"He's gone out, dude! I promise he'll be back!" He cried, his voice trembling. "Please don't kill me; I've got so many different pizza places to go to-"

"Hey! Stop that, right now!"

Both Gus and the fighting robot turned to see Lola standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips.

Gus' eyes widened. Did she _want_ to die? What was she doing?

He watched in shock horror as he watched her stride over and push herself between himself and the robot's whirring cannon.

"Lola? What are you doing? You got a death wish?" Gus hissed, cowering behind her.

Bjornbot narrowed his frown. There were _two_ kidnappers? He had _definitely_ never seen this one before.

"Bjorn!" He demanded again; but Lola surprised even him by slapping his arm gun away from her face. Gus shielded his face and prepared to be obliterated.

"Listen, okay?" She began sternly. "Your brother is safe, I swear. He'll be coming back very soon. Apparently Dr. Kamikazi attacked your home. Do you remember? He had another robot with him. He looked a bit like Robotboy. Do you remember fighting him?"

Yes. That did make sense. His memory became scratched and glitchy around that bit, but the memory was definitely there. He nodded, and Lola smiled.

"You were really badly damaged after that. You wouldn't turn back on. Bjorn couldn't repair you, so Tommy took you back to fix you. That's where you are now; you're at Tommy's house." Lola explained; she had taken up a more calming tone. She expelled an aura of calm; like a mother reassuring her frightened child. "Understand?"

"Ja." The robot nodded again. Gus wasn't cowering in a ball anymore; he had uncurled slightly and was staring up in amazement. Lola was _actually_ getting through to this literal walking weapon?

"I know you're probably really confused right now, but there's no need to be scared." She said. "Tommy spent hours fixing you and he didn't _have_ to! After all those times you caused trouble for him and Robotboy too! Now, put that weapon away."

Bjornbot looked down at his arm cannon. It was still whirring and ready to fire.

"Did you hear me? Put your gun away. _Now._ "

Gus couldn't believe what he was seeing as he saw Bjornbot's weapon begin to fold in on itself and turn back into his regular metal hand.

Lola tilted her head and smiled. "Good boy! Thank you. Now sit down. You don't wanna do more damage to yourself, do you?"

The robot shook his head and sat back down on the desk. Lola had a calming yet authoritative energy about her; she was clearly someone to be taken seriously but also someone to be trusted. She reminded him of Mama Bjornson. He wondered where she was and if she was okay. Being confused and defensive in this new environment, Lola had turned out to be a calming force.

"Lola! You saved me!" Gus straightened up and made like he hadn't been cowering behind her this whole time. "I mean, _obviously_ I would have been fine on my own but-"

"Shut up, you idiot." Lola snapped. "What were you doing? Why did you activate him?"

"No one tells the G-Man what to do."

Lola rolled her eyes and sighed. "The _G-Man_ won't be doing anything if he gets killed though, will he? I should have just let him shoot you."

"I _told you_ , I got skills! I can do fine on my own."

"Yeah? That's why you were hiding behind me and shaking like a baby, was it?"

The silver haired robot watched the two bickering and wondered when his brother was coming back. Was this another one of this 'fail-safe plans'? Although he trusted his human brother's every word, he _had_ noticed a pattern where Bjorn's plans failed quite a lot. Actually, they failed _all_ the time. He never usually minded though because everything they did together was always loads of fun but he really hoped that Bjorn hadn't gotten himself killed or arrested or _worse:_ grounded by their mother.

Gus had gotten bored of arguing with Lola about whether or not he knew kung fu and had skulked off to play on Tommy's video game console in the corner.

"I don't care what you say Lola; you'll need me when the apocalypse comes."

"Shut up, Gus."


	6. let tommy rest

"TOMMY, NO! TOMMY, NOT THE TENNIS RACKET! DON'T GET THE TENNIS RACKET!"

"Gus, you absolute idiot! What did you think you were doing?!"

"I just wanted to get some free candy, okay!"

Lola and Robotboy had decided not to intervene in this situation. They were leant against Tommy's bed, watching the fairly entertaining scenario that was currently going on. Tommy and Bjorn had come back from the shop finally (it turned out they had taken so long because when they walked past the frozen fish isle in the supermarket Bjorn saw a packet of frozen herring and started crying for his mama and Tommy spent half an hour calming him down before they could finally go and get the bread). When they walked in, Tommy saw that Gus had not only activated Bjornbot, but rummaged through his drawer and found the packet of chips that he had hidden in there specifically to keep them away from Gus.

That led on to the current situation; Gus cowering on top of Tommy's closet while Tommy attempted to smack him with a tennis racket.

"I've had it with you!" Tommy yelled. "Why do you ignore everything I say?"

"To be honest with you, man, I kinda just don't listen?" Gus shrugged. "Also! I never activated Robotboy! _You_ did that when you came back. You broke your own rule dude."

Tommy groaned and lobbed a towel at Gus' face to shut him up. He couldn't be bothered to deal with him anymore. After all, Gus was _always_ like this. He would calm down in a bit, he always did.

"Tommy okay?" Robotboy asked from beside Lola, to which Tommy nodded wearily.

"Yeah, I'll be okay buddy. I'm just really tired." He said. "I mean, first of all I got way less sleep than everyone else did. Then I had to deal with someone who's never been in a public supermarket before for like an hour. _Then_ I came home to find out that _someone_ had activated one of the world's most dangerous fighting robots in my bedroom."

"Dude, like I told Lola, I coulda' just used my ninja skills on him though." Gus piped up from on top of the closet.

Lola just rolled her eyes and went back to the magazine she and Robotboy were reading (well, it was more that Lola was explaining complicated concepts to him like hairspray and why human beings used it).

Bjorn wasn't even paying attention to what the others were doing because he was too busy on the phone to his mother while literally clinging to Bjornbot's arm like he was afraid he would suddenly be without him again. When he and Tommy had come back from the store, Tommy had noticed him trying really hard not to cry in front of them all now that he'd been reunited with his robot brother. He thought that honestly no one had noticed when he hugged Bjornbot for like ten minutes and was whimpering into his shoulder.

While Tommy was busy trying to kill Gus, they had both sat down in the corner and Bjorn finally called the hospital to talk to their mother. He'd been too afraid to do it in case it was bad news, but he felt way more secure with Bjornbot with him again. Though the others couldn't understand the language Bjorn was speaking to his mother in, in they could tell by his relieved tone of voice that she was okay.

Gus was too busy trying to avoid death to care though. He was just thankful that Robotboy had been too interested in Lola's magazine or he'd probably have tried to avenge Tommy's chips and…he'd be in so much pain right now.

"Hey, guys! What d'you wanna do today?" He attempted to change the subject.

"We could go to the movies?" Lola suggested. "Or you could stay on top of that closet forever?"

Gus scowled at her. "Nah. How about, someone finds it in their heart to go get me a megapack of cheese crackers."

He looked dead at Robotboy and he seemed to be considering it before remembering that stealing was wrong (and on a moral level, so were the majority of things Gus had gotten him to do over the years).

"Don't listen to him, Ro." Tommy sighed. "Besides! You ate _all_ my chips, Gus! How are you still hungry?"

It seemed like Bjorn had been on the phone so long that the hospital staff had politely removed him from the line.

"How's your mother?" Lola asked.

"She's recovering!" Bjorn replied happily. Bjornbot looked happy too. Their behavior had been so weird for Tommy to observe to say the least. He hadn't expected either of them to care about _anyone_ , especially not Bjornbot. It was pretty uplifting to see, though. They were still a bit strange in general and he wasn't completely sure he could trust them yet, but he would much rather have compassionate Bjorns in his house than the usual Destroy-Robotboy Bjorns.

"I'm glad she's okay." Tommy smiled. "It would have been awful if Protoboy had hurt her badly."

"I would _never_ have forgiven him." Bjorn said shakily. Bjornbot clenched his fists. "I'd have smashed his central processor myself!"

"Ja!" His robot brother agreed. Bjorn had to pat his arm to keep him from punching a hole in Tommy's wall.

"Nej, that's not Protoboy. You're gonna make Tommy's family angry."

"Oh, God! Don't punch through that wall!" Gus suddenly became animated again. "That's Donnie's room!"

"Yeah." Tommy lowered his voice. "Actually, could you guys just come away from that wall altogether? I don't wanna die today."

* * *

Back in Kaziland, the chiropractor had just left after whacking Kamikazi's back several times and cracking his spine back into place. Although Constantine came prepared with fresh batteries for Protoboy after Robotboy had knocked them out, their helicopter had been destroyed by Robotboy during the fight so Protoboy had had to carry Kamikazi and his henchman all the way back to Kaziland himself. Already inconsolably annoyed at having been beaten by his little brother, _again_ , he'd just slammed them down onto the floor once they'd arrived home and stormed off to observe the surveillance system again.

"I would have been fine if you hadn't have landed on top of me, Constantine, you useless buffoon." The doctor groaned, staring sadly into his empty wallet. That damn chiropractor was making way too much money off of him.

Constantine figured it best not to mention that Kamikazi's back was already cricked before they even got home, back from the first time Protoboy dropped him onto the ground. He'd been lucky to escape without injury when Robotboy showed up and he didn't want to push his luck by making his boss angry. As Kamikazi muttered to himself about Robotboy and how he was penniless again now, Constantine just continued humming away while making tapas.

To add to the tense atmosphere in the lab, Protoboy was over in the corner punching a desk.

"Aw, don't worry, Protoboy! We'll get him next time for sure!" Constantine looked up at the fighting robot and gave an encouraging smile. His enthusiasm was met with a deathly glare from the robot.

" **OF COURSE PROTO WILL."** He replied. **"YOU DOUBT PROTO?"**

"N-no, of course not!" The hunchbacked man replied sheepishly and went back to making food. " _Everyone's a grump today_."

" _Why_ does he always show up at the most inconvenient times?!" Kamikazi suddenly exploded, leaping up. "How did he even know we were there?"

"I don't know Boss; maybe some kinda robot social media?" Constantine shrugged.

The doctor made a gesture like he was three seconds away from throttling his assistant. But then he realised that if he choked Constantine to death he wouldn't get any tapas for dinner.

"But _why?_ " Kamikazi continued. "They're not friends! Bjorn wants to destroy Robotboy! He shows up all the time and has his robot battle him! Getting rid of them would be nothing but advantageous to him. _Why_ would Robotboy help them?"

"Maybe he felt bad for them?" Constantine suggested. "He didn't wanna see them die, even if they were his enemies?"

Protoboy suddenly spun round and fired his arm cannon, the blast missing the top of Constantine's head by inches.

" **FOOLISH BROTHER!"** He yelled. **"LITTLE BROTHER WEAK; CORRUPTED BY HUMAN EMOTION. WEAK. USELESS!"**

Constantine recovered from that near-death experience and held off from commenting that Robotboy _had_ just defeated him, so he couldn't be _that_ weak. Protoboy had gone back to smashing the nearest desk apart, and Constantine didn't really want to be on the receiving end of this small killing machine's rage at the moment. Or at _any_ moment, actually. He quite liked being alive.

"Don't worry," Kamikazi grinned maliciously. "With you on our side, Protoboy, I have no doubt that we will soon capture and _destroy_ Robotboy. Then, we will rule the entire world!"

Protoboy didn't necessarily have a great amount of faith in his two new partners, but he _did_ have a lot of unrestrained anger. Next time, for sure, he would finish what he started.


	7. Maximum Babysitter

It had been five days since Protoboy had attacked Bjorn's house, and things were just about settling back to how they normally were (or, whatever it was that defined "normal" for Tommy).

Bjorn and Bjornbot were still staying at Tommy's house, which he had just forced himself to get used to. His mother had been too busy to question their cover story of Bjorn being some random Scandinavian exchange student who was staying with them, and Dwight Turnbull was so inattentive in general that he had barely noticed the additionof another child in their house for the past four days. Like Robotboy, Tommy had deemed it way safer to keep Bjornbot out of sight of his parents. Sure, a lot of people just assumed he was Bjorn's twin brother upon seeing him and didn't even tend to notice that he was clearly made of metal for some odd reason (did everyone just decide that he must have some rare skin condition?), but even so, Tommy didn't want to risk his parents or Donnie asking odd questions about it. It would probably lead them to be more suspicious of his "robot doll" if they discovered there was a genuine sentient robot living under their roof.

He was happy to be welcoming towards them, but he wasn't about to put Robotboy at risk because of them.

It had been slightly weird for Robotboy having Bjornbot live with him and his best friend, since all their previous interactions had been overall negative experiences. Although he had saved him from being turned into charred scrap metal, Robotboy was very cautious around the other machine. He was constantly alert and prepared to fight him; if either he or Bjorn tried to do _anything_ to harm Tommy or his other friends he would be ready to stop them. When they all went to bed for the night, Robotboy would ask Tommy to make sure he was always deactivated for recharging after Bjornbot was, so he could keep an eye on him for every second he was conscious.

When the weekdays came around, Tommy, Lola and Gus had to go to school as usual. Robotboy always hated when Tommy left him alone and went to school, but even more so now. He was overly cautious about Protoboy, knowing that he was on the loose once more. As if he didn't have to worry about Kamikazi's almost daily attacks that put his friends at risk; now he had to worry about his trigger happy brother rocking up and hurting his closest friends while he wasn't there to protect him.

However, he _did_ have to stay at home.

Through some kind of weird luck (or most likely, money), Bjorn had enrolled himself at Tommy's school again. Tommy didn't care that he "knew everything already, I'm a child genius y'know-", there was no way he was leaving him alone in his house with Robotboy all day. Besides, on the other side of things, Tommy's suspicion towards that boy was slowly calming down and being replaced with pity. He thought that it would be good for Bjorn to go to school with them and do things that normal kids did. It would take his mind off worrying about Protoboy and it might even help him to grow as a person. Tommy figured that kicking villains into next week was effective in getting rid of them and all, but now that he had the chance to maybe even help one of them change on the inside, even just a bit, he thought that he'd at least give it a try.

Besides, he'd found out that one of the Bjorns had searched "How To Make Friends WikiHow" on his computer and it was the saddest thing he'd ever seen. It could have been either one of them honestly, since Bjorn had the social skills of a robot anyway, but either way he just felt so bad. Every time Tommy remembered that they were the same age, he only felt sorry for him when he thought about Bjorn being so twisted so young.

Oh, well. He'd been friends with Gus for _years_. He had a very high tolerance for difficult people.

Since it was a Friday, Robotboy had to say goodbye for Tommy yet again for the day. He _hated_ it whenever Tommy had to go to school!

As Tommy and his robot friend hugged goodbye, the human boy smiled and gave him a light pat on the head.

"I know you get bored here, Ro. Sorry you gotta stay here." He told him sadly. "But you _have_ got a really important- _HEY!_ Don't you smash that, I'm warning you-!"

Robotboy looked over at Bjornbot who slowly lowered the hammer that he was about to smash one of Tommy's snow globes with. He sighed and looked back at Tommy blankly.

"Robotboy no like being babysitter."

Tommy chuckled a bit. "I know, I'm sorry. But they can't go home yet, Bjorn's still scared."

"I heard that! I'm not scared!"

They both ignored the offended voice that came from the hallway and hugged once more.

"I'll be back at 3:30 like always!" He smiled, heading for the door. "You guys can play with any of my games and stuff, just don't save over any of the save files!"

Robotboy nodded and smiled.

"Okey Dokey, Tommy."

Satisfied that his friend would be alright for the day, he left the room and made his way downstairs to where Bjorn was waiting to leave. Robotboy listened to the front door close and their voices getting further away from the house. Once he were satisfied they were safely out the house (you never know! Tommy could get hit by a truck on the way to school or something!) he skipped across the room and went to play on Tommy's PSP.

Banned from doing anything destructive with the hammer, Bjornbot was just lying in the middle of the floor looking very sulky and hitting his hand with it. A few feet away from him, Robotboy sat against Tommy's bed and concentrated on the game that was starting up. He was careful not to save over his game file (like Gus did constantly without even caring). He found it amazing that humans had invented video games! Humans had also made _him_ , but video games were so cool and exciting! You could go to a whole new range of worlds and become someone completely new. He could even be a human boy in some of Tommy's video games, which were the ones he got the most enjoyment out of.

Although being left alone in Tommy's room was boring, he did find it really fun to immerse himself in different worlds through Tommy's video games and pretend he was a human boy. Even if it wasn't possible in real life, imagination could sometimes be just as fun! Usually he had no distractions either so he could become completely absorbed and the hours would pass quickly and before he knew it, Tommy would be home again!

However, being built with supersonic hearing had its disadvantages, since he now couldn't filter out the incessant hammer banging that was going on a few feet away from him.

He really didn't wanna have to talk to him. He _really_ didn't wanna have to talk to him.

He'd gone about four days barely saying a word to Bjornbot, aside from the occasional "Put that down" or "Don't touch that". He didn't know whether it was because deep within his motherboard he still mistrusted him saw him as a danger to Tommy and himself, or that he simply didn't know what to say. Even if he ignored the fact that he'd never even heard Bjornbot speak more than one word at a time before, what would they _even_ talk about?

Oh, hey, remember that time you tried to kill me? Remember that time I set you on fire? Good times.

The smaller robot glanced over briefly and observed him for a bit. _Why_ was he smashing his hand with a hammer? Was it some kind of protest? Did this pass as entertainment for him? Was he just throwing a tantrum because he'd been told he couldn't use the hammer for smashing up Tommy's furniture? Robotboy sighed; he was _genuinely_ babysitting right now. He paused the game and thought to himself; if he _had_ been appointed Bjornbot's guardian, he might as well do the job properly. Tommy wouldn't be happy if he ended with holes in his floor after all.

Robotboy beeped sharply to get his attention and Bjornbot's head jerked up.

The smaller robot held out his hand, a firm expression on his face.

"Give hammer." He instructed.

Bjornbot frowned and sat up, clutching the hammer to his chest. "Nej."

"Robotboy say; _give hammer_." He thrust his arm closer to the other's chest. Back when Robotboy was a younger and more rebellious robot, Tommy used to have to be this firm with him all the time. He would get annoyed with being told what to do as it often meant he had to stop whatever fun thing he was doing at the time, but he would later come to realize that Tommy had been firm with him for his own good. He knew a lot more about the human world and the bad things that could happen, having obviously existing for longer than him. Since Bjornbot seemed to be, in mentality, a younger robot, he decided to act from his own experiences.

The other machine was still defiantly gripping the hammer close to him.

"Tommy say, _no_ destroy." Robotboy told him. "Bjornbot creator and Tommy friends now! You noticed? You upset Tommy, upset Bjorn too."

Bjornbot pulled an almost worried expression and stared down at the fun smashing object he was holding. Ever since his creation, his prime directive had been to destroy this robot. Why did he have to listen to him now? Although, he _did_ make a good point. He also remembered some throwaway command Bjorn had given him about trying not to smash up Tommy's house. And Tommy and Robotboy _did_ save them.

"Want that? Want upset Bjorn?" Robotboy prompted him.

Bjornbot frowned in irritation and shook his head. "Nej."

Robotboy smiled brightly as the other finally handed him the hammer. Being firm had worked! The little robot was very proud of himself. Maybe being a babysitter wasn't too hard after all!

He returned to his game as Bjornbot slumped to the floor again. All he had to do was keep him out of trouble for a few hours; it wouldn't be that difficult. He advanced through several levels before he noticed that Bjornbot had gotten up and was pacing. He frowned in confusion as he watched him circle the same spot a few times then go back up and down the room again. Each time he came back he looked really bewildered, like he was expecting to keep on walking right through the door and end up somewhere different but he was still in the same room, no matter how many times he paced.

"Hello?" Robotboy called out to him. "What doing?"

Bjornbot paused and beeped. Robotboy had noticed that Bjornbot's beeps tended to only have one singular tone, like Morse code, whilst his own beeps were a lot more varied and expressive of his emotions. It was way harder to tell what Bjornbot was feeling because of that, or if he was even feeling anything at all?

Robotboy watched the humanoid robot cock his head towards the window, then look back at him. "Ja?"

Robotboy gave him a puzzled look. "Sorry. Robotboy no understand. Sit, please! What wrong?" He patted the spot next to him, gesturing with a kind smile that he should come and sit down there. He hoped Bjornbot wasn't glitching out or something. Maybe Tommy had missed something while fixing him?

When the other robot obliged and sat down next to him with his knees pulled to his chest, Robotboy asked him what was wrong again.

He frowned and looked like he was concentrating really hard on something and muttered "Nej" a few times. He clenched his metal fists and pulled his knees closer to his chest like a child who'd just been sent to the time-out corner and was now sulking.

"No? No what?" Robotboy questioned him again, nudging him lightly. "You no have other words?"

He didn't mean to be insensitive, but he was worried about how they would ever manage to have a proper conversation when Bjornbot seemed to have such a minimal grasp on human language.

Bjornbot's head jerked to the window again as he heard a bird chirp. He stared at the sky for a few more seconds before fixing his optical sensors onto Tommy's carpet again.

"Jag- " He clenched his fists and beeped angrily. "Jag. Jag ha-?"

When his voice glitched and failed to make whatever noises he was attempting, he gave up and just punched the ground.

Robotboy gasped as he noticed the minor, yet still noticeable dent that he'd left in Tommy's carpet. He hoped that he hasn't damaged the flooring underneath too much!

"No! Stop!" He held his hands out frantically as Bjornbot raised his fist towards the ground again. "Must not smash!"

Oddly, the other battle robot dropped his arm almost immediately. He still looked frustrated but at least he wasn't smashing holes in the ground anymore.

Robotboy sighed as he continued to make calming air motions with his hands. He knew that Bjornbot must have a sound bank, since he could (kind of) talk and make excited yelling sounds once in a while, but he guessed that Bjorn just hadn't programmed any way of verbalizing anything other than the bare minimum needed to communicate. Maybe since his only purpose upon creation was to fight and destroy him, Bjorn didn't bother teaching him things he deemed unnecessary like sentence structure and how to communicate feelings.

He wished Lola was here. She was always so good at weird emotion situations like this. Where was Team Mom when you needed her? Professor Moshimo would be even better, since he was the ultimate expert on robots, but even Robotboy realized that taking Bjornbot to see Moshimo would probably freak the Professor out a bit.

Suddenly, the smaller robot had an idea.

"Okay! Wait sec!" He hovered up to the top shelf of Tommy's draw and pulled out a few sheets of paper and a marker pen. Gently heading back down, he slid them over to the silver-haired robot. "You know words, right? Just can't make many out loud."

Bjornbot thought and after deciding that was an adequate description of him, nodded.

"Okay, so use pen! Write down what think. Even draw if better!"

Bjornbot stared down at the blank sheet before settling down on his stomach to start writing. Why was Robotboy being so nice to him? He'd have thought he would have a massive grudge against him after everything he and Bjorn had put him through; why was he helping him like this?

Extremely confusing.

He held the pen uncertainly and scribbled on the page to test it out. He'd been given no clear instructions for this weird writing task so wasn't sure if he was doing it right. He looked up at the smaller Robot who was wearing a slightly amused smile.

"It ok, use any language. Robotboy translate! Have good language scanner." He had gone back to playing his game to pass the time.

As a few minutes passed and Robotboy managed to advance to the next level, he felt Bjornbot nudge him with his head from on the floor and pass him the sheet of paper.

"Oh, okay!" He paused the game and put the PSP down. He felt like he was hosting a mini art show, like one he saw on TV once! Tommy's mom liked to watch those shows on TV a lot.

Bjornbot's penmanship wasn't the best but Robotboy had actually seen _Gus'_ handwriting (from back before Tommy banned Gus from making Robotboy do his homework for him) and after that experience he could read _anyone's_ handwriting.

Bjornbot had drawn (what Robotboy assumed to be) Tommy's house, a box with a triangle on it, and inside the house he'd written, **"DISLIKE IN HERE. TRAPPED &CANT RUN& BROTHER LEAVES. "**

Robotboy finished reading what was on the paper and his blue ears drooped sadly.

"Robotboy understand."

He remembered this feeling! _Pity._ He felt bad for him, feeling this way probably ever since he'd gotten to Tommy's house but not ever being able to tell anyone. That's why he acted so weird whenever Tommy and Bjorn went to school. He smashed and broke things more frequently because the new environment and the fact they couldn't leave the room stressed him out.

"When have too much energy, Bjorn let you out?" Robotboy asked. "That why you keep looking at window?"

The other robot nodded quickly. "Ja!"

"Robotboy understand. But, sorry, can't leave. Tommy say." He said sadly.

Bjornbot slammed his head onto the ground with such force the entire room shook. "Jag hatar!"

"Robotboy hate inside too." The smaller robot agreed, sinking down further against the bed. " _So_ boring."

They sat in silence for a bit, staring out the window. Normally Tommy wouldn't care if he adventured outside occasionally when he wasn't there; he never _forced_ him to stay cooped up on his own for the entire day. Tommy trusted him! But Robotboy also knew that he couldn't promise him that Bjornbot wouldn't do something ridiculous that'd get them both in trouble if they went outside. And he couldn't leave him alone in Tommy's room either as the same logic applied.

"Oh! Have idea!" Robotboy suddenly perked up. Bjornbot looked up curiously from his position on the floor. "Tommy family not here, could give tour of downstairs? Could show TV!"

The silver haired robot hopped up immediately and nodded. "Ja!"

There was a TV back at Bjorn's house as well! They watched it sometimes, but mainly Bjornbot watched it when Mama Bjornson had the remote because she always found the most bizarre channels and documentaries like 'Top 10 Most Dangerous Places to Be A Reindeer Herder' and other things that contained exciting footage of people getting injured, which he found really entertaining.

Glad that his suggestion had ignited excitement all round, Robotboy smiled widely and shot up to head for the door. Tommy technically hadn't told him _not_ to leave the room and go downstairs. He was just specific about them not leaving the house. The little robot realized that he was genuinely quite excited to show Bjornbot the house he lived in and show him various interesting things like the toaster and the bouncy couch cushions downstairs.

"Robotboy sorry not talk to you 'til now."

Bjornbot looked up at him and blinked, before writing something on the piece of paper that he'd kept and handing it to the other robot, who was still hovering above the ground in excitement.

" **ITS OK I THOUGHT ID ALWAYS B ROBOTBOY'S ENEMY. SO. SORRY I DID ALL THE BAD THINGS TO YOU. THANK YOU FOR SAVING BROTHER AND MAMA"**

Robotboy scanned the message and beeped happily.

"It no worries." He smiled. "Oh! Is nearly 11! Can show Human Fist! You will love; much violence."


	8. gus you egg

**A/N) hello i keep forgetting, i hav no idea where Bjorn comes from bc the specific country it says he comes from on the wiki has changed so many times so I've always just stuck with Sweden instead of Miscellaneous Scandinavian country** ™ **i dont kno ... a thing my guy.**

 **ALSO thank u TheBigChillQueen for your lovely reviews on the previous chapters as always! am lov u ur the best ?**

 **ANYWAY, !**

* * *

Tommy had just finished an especially boring English lesson; at least it was the end of the school day and he could home now though. He went to wait at the usual spot by his locker but was surprised to find that Gus was there already, crouched behind the water fountain.

"Dude, what are you doing?" Tommy sighed. Did he even _want_ to know?

"Tommy! Shh!" The chubby boy hissed. "I just saw Kurt and his little minions. I made it through the whole day without getting beat up; I'm not about to break my streak!"

Tommy frowned. With all the hectic activity that had been going on recently, he'd almost forgotten about _other_ threats like Kurt. Although the school bully was less likely to actually kill him or his friends (although that hadn't stopped him trying a few times) he was only a human; it wasn't as if he was as dangerous as Protoboy. He didn't exactly blame Gus for hiding though; it wasn't fun getting punched in the face every day.

"Which way'd they go anyway?" Tommy asked. "And where are the others?"

"Heck if I know." Gus shrugged. "Maybe Kurt found Bjorn and stole his shoes or something. We'd be off the hook then!"

"Gus, I told you to watch him? Wackjob still doesn't know how the school works. He's the kinda person to go right up to Kurt and challenge him to a battle or something, then he'd remember he didn't have his robot with him and get hospitalized."

Gus gave a snort of laughter. "That'd be so funny."

Tommy groaned in annoyance at his friend's utter lack of responsibility. In retrospect, he really should have asked Lola to watch Bjorn while they were at school. He had no idea why he thought that Gus would be a sensible choice.

"Okay, if they don't get here in the next five minutes we gotta go look for them."

Gus stood up from behind the fountain, deeming it safe to let himself out in the open again. "Who cares? They'll make it back. Lola knows how to get to yours! Dude, there are new Human Fist episodes. I'm not waiting for them."

"Episodes which you can only watch on _my_ TV, remember?" The blonde boy snapped. "Or maybe you wanna go home and milk your cow?"

"Hey, not cool dude. No jokes about the cow." He muttered. "See look, there they are!"

Tommy turned round and gave a sigh of relief when he saw Lola and Bjorn.

"Finally! I thought something bad happened to you guys."

Lola gave a shy smile, finding it sweet that Tommy had actually been worried about her.

"We're in school, what's the worst that could happen?" She giggled. "You worry too much."

"I dunno, this school isn't really great with security." Gus chipped in. "Remember the magician school nurse?"

Tommy nodded. That was just _one_ of the many weird things that had happened at their school. They really did need to start doing more background checks on the staff they hired and the people they let in.

"Tommy, I think I made a mistake today." Bjorn admitted out of nowhere.

"What did you do? Mistakes aren't all bad. Just tell us, like I said, and you can learn not to do them again." Tommy made sure to sound as reassuring as he could. The whole process with Bjorn's redemption was like teaching a baby (or a really misbehaving dog) everything all over again from scratch. "Unless you've killed someone _already_. You can't exactly un-murder someone. Please tell me you haven't killed someone-"

Lola giggled. "No! Nothing like that. He just-"

"-I know you told me to be careful but I ate the canteen food!"

Tommy blinked, then let out a relieved laugh. "That's fine! I thought you were gonna tell me something awful."

"Ugh! That's _not_ fine!" Gus yelled. "Did you eat the grey-looking slop? I saw that today, did you eat that? Not even _I_ would eat that."

Bjorn nodded. "Is there a secret technique that all poor people learn for when they go to school? How do you tell which of the food options won't kill you?"

Lola patted her backpack. "Just bring your own food. It's not even a poor people thing, I've always done it. I just don't like what they serve here."

"Yeah, Lola's lunches are always so intense." Gus started drooling at the thought. "Come to think of it, have you got any left?"

" _No_."

"Worth a try." He shrugged. "Yeah, don't eat that again, B. You gotta observe it with your eyes. If it moves, don't put it in your mouth."

Bjorn nodded regretfully. "I feel so sicky."

"Listen." Tommy said. "I appreciate how you did the dishes yesterday, but if you throw up on my carpet when we get home I'm actually gonna be so angry at you. Gus already spills soda on my floor everyday as it is-"

"Tommy, you're gonna get ants at this rate!"

"Gus, shut up! This is your fault! If we get ants I'm sending the exterminator bill to your house."

"What are you _losers_ talking about?"

The kids all jumped in their skin a little as they turned round and saw Kurt and his two friends standing menacingly at the end of the hallway. Tommy heard Gus whisper, _"Pretend to be dead everyone!"_ from behind him. He figured it was a bit too late for that though.

"Uh, nothing." Tommy began to edge the others towards the exit. "We were just leaving, actually-"

Kurt's signature sadistic grin widened and he chuckled. "I don't _think_ so. You guys are too fun to mess with. Maybe we should all just _hang out_ after school."

Stu and Mookie laughed creepily from behind him, although Stu clearly didn't get what was funny and was wondering to himself why Kurt wanted to hang out with them when he didn't like them? He was about to bring this up when he remembered Kurt being really angry at him the last time he asked questions while he was in the middle of being sinister.

Gus was still on the floor pretending to have fainted.

As the three approached, Lola stepped forward.

"Don't you guys have something _better_ to do?" She snarled. "Don't you have to take each other to the bathroom or something?"

Before Kurt could open his mouth, Mookie answered, "Not anymore."

"That's...pretty weird, I'm not gonna lie." Tommy muttered.

"Shut up!" After smacking Mookie in the head for that stupid comment, Kurt leaned down to Lola, his shadowed face just inches from hers. "D'you think I'm scared to hit a girl or something?"

Lola shrugged. "I dunno. You should be more scared of a girl hitting _you_."

Gus whined from on the floor. How did Lola get so brave? It was pretty scary.

Kurt frowned and looked down at him. Gus was by far one of his favorite kids to bully at school. He was just so fun and he made for such an easy target. Besides, he wouldn't admit it but he _was_ kind of scared to hit Lola.

"Hey. I can see you're not dead." He smirked. "Guys; get him."

Stu and Mookie started laughing in unison as they approached Gus, who leaped up and grabbed Bjorn by the shoulders, shoving him in front of him like a shield.

"Take him! His shoes are probably worth loads of money on the internet!"

" _Gus!"_ Tommy hissed in disbelief from beside him.

"Really?" Mookie stopped. "I like money. Should we take his shoes, Kurt?"

Bjorn was still trying to process what was even going on as he'd been too busy thinking about what he would bring to lunch from now on so he wouldn't feel so ill all day again. He realized that Mookie was grinning right at him like a really excited pit bull terrier, and Gus was gripping his shoulders for dear life.

"You don't know how badly I could _sue_ you all." He threatened.

Kurt snorted with laughter. "You can't sue anyone if we break your legs and leave you in a ditch."

The blonde boy paled and tried to wriggle free of Gus' grasp. "You'll see! If I had my robo-"

"-Okay!" Tommy had no choice but to force himself between Mookie and the captive blonde. Kurt looked especially sadistic today, and Tommy prepared himself for the beating of a lifetime. The things he did to protect their collective robot secret.

By some miracle, Kurt's phone suddenly started to ring from inside his pocket, distracting him completely. Bjorn kicked Gus in the stomach and he yelped from the shock of his heel digging right into his abdomen and let him go.

"What'd you do that for? It was all goin' according to my plan!" Gus whined, doubled over and clutching his stomach. Bjorn had rushed to hide behind Lola who was scowling at him.

Mookie and Stu had also become highly distracted by Kurt actually picking up his phone, suggesting it was something important. The two just stood there attentively, listening to Kurt start impatiently talking to the person on the other end.

"What're you talking about? _What?_ You're not making any sense."

Lola nudged Tommy and gestured the exit door. "Let's go while they're distracted."

Gus wasted no time in bolting out the door. Tommy rolled his eyes and made sure Bjorn followed them out as well. As Tommy was the last to leave, he managed to catch the tail-end of Kurt's conversation.

"What do you mean? What kinda killer robot're you talking about? Dad, I don't _wanna_ have to go into that stupid bunker, you're probably worrying about nothing again. Ugh, this is so dumb!"

He couldn't hear anything else that was distinguishable as the door had shut behind him, but Tommy was suddenly filled with icy fear as soon as he heard those words. Sure, Kurt's dad was always getting himself involved in loads of weird cases to do with his weird secret government job, but he automatically feared the worst. Did Kurt's dad somehow get involved with Protoboy? Had Protoboy gone after him like he had done with Bjorn?

As they walked home and Lola screamed at Gus for being reckless and selfish back at the school, Tommy couldn't stop thinking about it. It was way too much of a coincidence; whenever Kurt's dad crossed paths with them in any way it was always to do with Robotboy. Bjorn was also connected to Protoboy in the sense that he had also previously wanted to capture his robotic best friend. Was Protoboy targeting all of Kamikazi's rivals for some reason?

"Tommy!" Lola's voice broke him out his thought bubble and he looked up to see the girl's furious face. "Could you help me out here? Next time Kurt comes for us, I'm gonna pick you up and hand you over to him myself, Gus!"

Gus just shrugged and carried on shoveling chips in his mouth as they walked. "Like I said, the G-Man had a plan goin'! I wasn't actually gonna let them mug you, B."

Bjorn just scowled at him. "For _some reason_ I don't believe you. If I hadn't promised Tommy I wouldn't, I'd have tied you to a table and electrocuted you by now."

Gus just stared at the other boy blankly. "That's a bit harsh. At least take me out for dinner first or something."

"Gus, it's not funny!" Tommy stopped in the street and yelled suddenly, surprising all three of them. "You can't just sacrifice people to save yourself! You're always doing this! I can't believe that out of someone who's supposed to be my friend and the guy who once _literally_ tried to blow up Robotboy, I don't feel like I can trust _you_ at all anymore! What if they actually _had_ broken Bjorn's legs? Would you feel good about yourself? Or just relieved that it hadn't been you?"

Lola was still frowning at him in disbelief with her arms folded, and Bjorn looked more surprised than anything else at the unfamiliar sight of Tommy getting this angry on his behalf.

"Tommy, chill…" Gus sounded a lot more sheepish than usual; he was used to Tommy getting annoyed with his antics but this time, his level of anger was completely different. "Like I said, I had a plan-"

"You didn't, though, did you? Unless your plan was to run off while Kurt and the others were busy punching Bjorn's teeth out? They'd probably move on to me and Lola next, so that would have given you enough time to get as far away as possible!" Tommy was yelling in his face at this point, and Gus was too stunned to even step back or react. Tommy had never gotten this angry at him before. " _Then_ I'm guessing you'd just show up at my house the next day like everything was fine and you'd eat all my food like you always do, without even apologizing! Am I right? Was _that_ your plan?"

"Tommy, I wouldn't do that…"

"I don't care! I'm fed up with this! There's too much going on at the moment! I don't have time to deal with your childish selfishness, Gus! Just go back to your own house." The blonde boy turned furiously and stormed off down the street, past a stunned Lola and Bjorn. Looking back at the ginger boy who was left standing in the street on his own, Lola almost felt bad for him. It didn't excuse his behavior though, nor did it make him any less deserving of Tommy snapping on him, especially after all the time he had spent dealing with Gus.

She turned and nudged Bjorn who was still frozen like he was watching a TV drama and gestured with her hand that they should go after Tommy. After unfreezing, he didn't even think to taunt Gus before following after Lola. Friendships were so complicated. And explosive.

* * *

Lola bit her lip in concern as she pressed her face to the window again.

"Is he still out there?" Bjorn asked from the bed.

"Yeah." She nodded, sounding concerned. "He's just sitting on the swing."

Robotboy was positioned next to her, having been observing the window ever since his human friends had returned. Tommy had gone out into his garden without saying a word to any of them, leaving Lola and Bjorn still in his room. Robotboy had immediately dashed to the window and was about to follow him out, when Lola stopped him and told him that he probably wanted to be alone for a bit.

"Why no see Tommy?" The little robot asked sadly. "Tommy look sad. Robotboy help?"

"I know." Lola had sat down by the window, seeing as they were spending most of their time there looking out at Tommy anyway. "But he didn't say anything to us when he left, so he probably just doesn't wanna talk right now. He doesn't want us gone, or he would have said so."

Robotboy continued to stare out the window at his friend, his blue ears drooping sadly.

Noticing his melancholy, Lola smiled gently and patted his arm. "Don't worry. It won't be forever. Of course you can talk to him later on, but maybe not just right now. Okay?"

"I think she's right, Robotboy!" Bjorn spoke up, having been previously distracted by his robot eagerly showing him all of the drawings he'd done throughout the day. "We should leave him to calm down a bit. He was practically on fire outside-"

"Tommy on _fire?!_ " Robotboy suddenly shot up into the air in a panic. "Must save-!"

"Nej! Not _actually_ on fire! I just mean he was really angry! Like, yelling a lot."

"Oh." Robotboy settled down, very relieved to hear that no actual fire was involved.

Bjornbot had also perked up at the mention of fire, but sank back down again and looked very disappointed that there wasn't a real fire going on.

"Tommy mad?" Robotboy asked, looking between Lola and Bjorn.

"Yeah." Lola nodded. "He got really angry at Gus and just flipped out on him in the street and screamed at him to go home. That's why he's not here today."

Robotboy was admittedly surprised at this. He'd never known Tommy to get _that_ mad at Gus.

Bjornbot nudged his human brother with his head, suddenly interested at the mention of screaming. "Ja?"

Bjorn nodded. "There are these hooligans at Tommy's school and they were gonna beat us up or something and Gus-"

" _-Gus_ was willing to let them take Bjorn just so he could get away." Lola jumped in, still furious at the day's events. "He would probably have just run off and let them hurt Tommy and me as well!"

Robotboy gasped at this. "Really?"

"Yeah. I know Gus is your friend and all, Ro, but even Tommy said himself that he doesn't know if he can trust him." Lola muttered angrily. "He's just so _selfish_. To be honest I'm surprised that it took this long for Tommy to get properly angry at him. He's had it coming for ages."

Robotboy felt like his entire metal body had deflated; arguments among his closest friends were always so horrible and confusing. Of course he trusted Tommy and his opinions of people, but Gus had also been his friend for as long as Tommy had. Obviously, Robotboy knew by now that Gus could be a reckless idiot from time to time, but he still liked hanging out with him. He knew that Tommy did too. He was sure that arguing with Gus had put yet more strain on him. He was already stressed enough as it is.

Bjornbot had grabbed his creators' arm and was emitting a low warning growl. There were so many people out there who wished to harm his brother! No wonder Robotboy was always so worried about his friends during the day.

"I hope he'll be okay." Lola muttered while staring out the window, her voice filled with worry. "We'll go talk to him later."

Robotboy nodded. He wished he could go and talk to him now though; it felt awful just sitting up here while his best friend was alone and upset.

"Should I strap Gus to a rocket?" Bjorn suggested. "Would that make Tommy happy?"

Robotboy looked very concerned and Lola groaned. "Although admittedly I'd love to see that, Tommy wants you to stop being such a maniac so I don't think doing that will make him very happy at all."

Bjornbot looked extremely disappointed again.

"We'll just have to see how-"

Lola suddenly noticed that Robotboy had become fixated on something that was going on outside. Turning to the window, she felt her heart begin to race as she noticed a small but menacing black and red helicopter descend from the sky and position itself just above Tommy's garden.

" _Oh no!_ It's Kamikazi!" Lola gasped in terror. "Robotboy, we-"

Before she could even finish, the small robot had blasted through the window and shot down into the garden.


	9. Here He Is

**A/N: H HHHH there;s probably gonna be so many errors in this story in general btw bc I write most of it when i cant sleep 5am & im so bad at checking for mistakes n stuff n i only seem to realize them when the chapters r published ?**

* * *

Protoboy emerged menacingly from Kamikazi's helicopter, glowing red optic sensors narrowing in anger at the sight of his little brother who was standing defensively in front of the human boy.

"Tommy, run! Get safe!" Robotboy turned to him and urged desperately.

The human boy was still trying to process what was going on; when the villainous flying machine had showed up above his garden he was still going over what he had said to Gus in his head. He hadn't been prepared to have to deal with these guys today; they had just been at school less than an hour ago! Why did this have to happen now?

The lack of reaction from either of them annoyed the older robot brother severely, and his response to this was to aim and fire a missile from his arm canon in their direction. Tommy could only duck and shield his face as Robotboy used his force field to protect him from the impact.

"Protoboy! Why come back?" Robotboy shouted up at him. "Why do all this? _Why want hurt friends_?"

Protoboy only aimed his arm canon and fired once more; the blast once again being blocked by his brother's energy shield.

" **BROTHER, WEAK."** He taunted over the sound of his arm gun powering up to fire again. **"ROBOTS NO NEED FRIENDS; ROBOTS ONLY** _ **SLAVES**_ **TO HUMANS."**

The smaller robot frowned; that wasn't true! He and Tommy were friends; they were best friends! It hurt him that Protoboy couldn't understand this, but it angered him more that his brother was actively trying so hard to injure those he cared about.

He saw that the others had rushed down from Tommy's room and were all crowded in the doorway (so they could duck back inside the house if the hostile robot decided to start shooting at them).

"Tommy, run! Hurry up!" Lola yelled, terrified at the idea of him getting hurt. He didn't seem to have the same quick reaction time as usual; normally he would have gotten out the way by now. Lola's voice snapped Tommy out of his shocked state and he turned to the doorway. Bjorn didn't look much better; for once he wasn't standing there looking cocky like Tommy was used to seeing when something was going down. Bjornbot was practically shaking upon seeing Protoboy again; he looked like he was ready to snap him in half.

Seeing Bjorn alive and that Bjornbot had somehow been repaired after all the time it had taken to smash him up him filled Protoboy with further sparks of rage. How had that _happened?_ Why were they now at Tommy's house? It was no doubt the work of his little brother and his corrupted, emotion-riddled motherboard.

As Protoboy fired again, continuing to taunt both his brother and his best friend, Robotboy gave Tommy a harsh shove to push him into getting out of the way. It clicked in him that Robotboy most likely felt like he couldn't do anything to Protoboy if Tommy was still in the way; he was too afraid of hurting him. That was one of the many things that separated him from his aggressive brother; Robotboy valued the lives of his friends. He recognized that human beings could get hurt during a battle between two machines. Protoboy was the complete opposite; not only did he not care, but he actively _enjoyed_ killing and injuring humans.

With more of Lola's shouts of encouragement, Tommy finally ran over to the others and she immediately grabbed him. With his friend out of the way, Robotboy blasted up to his brother and began trying his best to fend him off.

Kamikazi and Constantine observed from the helicopter, yelling _"Go for the Eyes!"_ and other encouraging phrases, like they were watching a wrestling match on TV.

"This is great, Constantine." Kamikazi chuckled. "He's doing all our work for us! We didn't even need to bring out the clones this time! I've saved so much of my resources thanks to Protoboy; we're gonna need them once Robotboy's destroyed and we take over the world."

"I know, right!" Constantine replied cheerfully. It was such a good thing to see that his Boss' plans were actually working for once. He wouldn't say that to his face though, as he'd probably get accused of 'doubting his genius'. "Should we worry about those kids though, Boss? They're all still hiding in the house."

"Don't be stupid! They're just kids!" Kamikazi yelled in his henchman's face. "Protoboy will dispose of them when he's done with Robotboy! It _is_ annoying that Bjorn is still alive somehow, but you saw what Protoboy did to his robot last time? He can do it again, easily."

"Well, okay Boss!" Constantine had chosen to be optimistic this time. Things had been going quite well for them so far! Earlier during the day, Protoboy had attacked the government building where a certain classified secret agent worked, terrifying all the occupants into hiding. They weren't sure whether they had eliminated Kurt's father or not, but by that time the fighting robot had gotten impatient and decided to go after his brother right away. He decided he would simply finish off Kamikazi's rivals afterwards; he couldn't bear the thought of his brother being conscious any longer.

He needed to make sure that Robotboy, Moshimo, and everyone involved would suffer.

Lola was still checking Tommy all over for any signs of injury. "Are you sure he didn't hurt you?"

"Yes, for the millionth time. I'm okay." Tommy gently batted her hand away, smiling weakly. "I'm more worried about Robotboy."

By this time, both battle robots had superactivated and were shooting at each other; each time one of their shots were deflected or dodged it would explode somewhere in Tommy's garden. He was gonna have to find some way to explain the scorched fence to his parents when they got home later on. His garden really wasn't an adequate location for two 7ft robots to be fighting each other.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Lola asked nervously, observing the battle and wincing each time their robot friend received an impact from any number of Protoboy's weapons.

"I don't…" Tommy suddenly remembered that Bjornbot had been standing right next to him the entire time. It would certainly help if a robot with weapons capabilities and strength equal to Robotboy's helped him out; he could probably help to deal with Kamikazi too.

"Bjornbot, help Robotboy!" Tommy urged him. "You remember what Protoboy did to your home? Aren't you angry at him?"

The silver haired robot was still shaking with rage as he nodded. "Ja!"

"Then why-?"

Lola tapped Tommy's shoulder and gestured to Bjorn who was curled up by the sink. Neither of them had even noticed how long he'd been in that position since they had been preoccupied with Protoboy suddenly appearing and attacking their friend.

"I think Bjornbot can only act on orders from him." Lola said. "I don't think he can attack unless Bjorn tells him to."

"Of _course_." Tommy groaned. He could see that Bjornbot wanted to go up and fight Protoboy, badly, but he hadn't been given the verbal directive to allow him to. He assumed that with Robotboy it was different; he was created in the first place to fight him but Bjorn had probably programmed him so that he couldn't fight anything else unless given permission – perhaps to keep him from just attacking everything and everyone?

"Hey!" Tommy crouched down to where Bjorn was positioned and shoved his shoulder. "Tell him he can fight Protoboy! Robotboy needs his help! Even if he does defeat him, the fight will have drained his power, and there's no telling what Kamikazi has planned for when that happens!"

Bjorn turned to the other boy, wide-eyed and frozen.

"It's g-gonna happen again." He croaked, tearing up.

Tommy frowned, noticing from his hand that was still clamped to the other boy's shoulder that Bjorn was shaking. "What are you talking about? Why are you crying?"

"Th-that robot will smash up my brother like he did last time then he'll, he'll find Mama and he'll kill her!" Gripped with fear, he grabbed Tommy's arm and squeezed it so hard it hurt. "I'm-m gonna lose everything! I don't wanna b-be alone I can't-!"

"-Dude!" Tommy yanked his arm free of Bjorn's grasp and grabbed him forcefully by the shoulders. "That won't happen! You just gotta calm down and give Bjornbot the order; tell him he can fight Protoboy!"

Bjorn whimpered shakily and stared right past Tommy at Bjornbot, who looked just as lost as Lola was.

It wasn't unusual for his human brother to work himself up into these panicked states and there wasn't usually much he could do about it. On the flip side of Bjorn's regular bursts of energy that came with formulating or carrying out some malicious plan were occasional breakdowns of the same magnitude when things weren't going right. Bjornbot never learned how to react to those; the only thing that had really worked in the past was sitting with him and bringing him water, holding his hand sometimes. Even then, that didn't always work. Humans had some very complicated and confusing responses to things.

Tommy shook him again, more forcefully this time.

"Bjorn! Just give him the order!" He shouted in exasperation. "It'll all be okay if you just do this one thing!"

"S-stop, yelling, he's not going! I want him here, he's staying here! If I let him go he'll be gone forever and I'll n-never see him again!"

Flinching away from Tommy who had leant even closer to him and was practically yelling in his face, Bjorn shook himself free of Tommy's grasp and curled up even further into himself, pressing his side into the wall as if he wanted to disappear through it.

"Tommy." Lola said softly and lightly tapped the blonde boy who she could tell was about to start shouting again. "Stop it. I know you're worried about Robotboy but you're just freaking him out even more. It isn't helping."

Tommy looked from Lola back to his former enemy who was hyperventilating and hugging himself and immediately stepped back, quickly recognizing how forceful he'd just been.

"Sorry." He said quickly. "I'm really sorry I grabbed you."

Bjorn just whined for Bjornbot between his panicked gasping and was now clinging to him tightly while Bjornbot gently patted his creator's arm, hoping that it would help slow his breathing.

"Tommy, we should call the Professor." Lola said, seeing as the boys were all out of ideas. "It doesn't even matter if he's angry for not letting him know about all that's been going on at this point. We need his help."

Tommy nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right." As went to press the button on his watch that would contact Professor Moshimo, he mentally thanked Lola for always having such a level head in these hectic situations.

Tommy suddenly heard an explosion from outside and gasped once he saw that Robotboy had been hit badly in the chest by one of Protoboy's projectile missiles. He could see his robot friend try his best to keep going, but he had already taken a lot of hits and Protoboy had his usual vengeful rage on his side that was keeping him strong. Even subconsciously, was Robotboy holding back on Protoboy? Because he was his brother?

Tommy heard Bjorn start sobbing harder and begin frantically chanting something over and over in his mother tongue with his head pressed to Bjornbot's chest like a baby animal in need of protection. Bjornbot wished there was some way of transferring all his energy to Robotboy who was still battling his villainous older brother. He wanted Protoboy gone as much as the others did. That robot had caused so much trouble, and even _now_ his presence was causing his brother distress. He knew though that he couldn't leave him alone when he was so frightened and had specifically requested him to stay with him.

As the small blue hologram burst from Tommy's watch, he prayed that his robot friend would stay strong and be alright. The elderly Japanese man seemed to be in the middle of watching some cowboy TV show when Tommy had contacted him.

"Professor!" Tommy called out over the explosions and the distant sounds of Kamikazi roaring with triumphant laughter from up in his helicopter. Professor Moshimo looked round in surprise, then gave a fond smile when he noticed that Tommy had called him.

"Hello, Tommy." He greeted him. "What seems to be-"

"-Professor I'm so sorry I didn't tell you about all this before!" Tommy burst out, causing the old man's smile to fade and become replaced by a grave frown once he realized that his young friend must be in trouble. "Basically, Protoboy's back! And he's teamed up with Kamikazi! I don't know what they're doing but they're going around attacking all of Kamikazi's enemies for some reason and they went to Shlitvard and they almost killed Bjorn's mother and also Bjorn's here and he's been staying at my house with his robot but that's a really long story and I'm so sorry I didn't tell you and I know you're probably gonna be really mad at me and not trust me anymore but-!"

"Tommy, slow down." The Professor instructed calmly. "We can talk about the other stuff later, but what exactly is going on right _now_?"

"Oh, right! Protoboy's at my house! He came out of nowhere and Kamikazi and Constantine are with him too in their stupid helicopter and Robotboy's fighting him at the moment but I'm really worried about what will happen to him if…!"

"Okay." Moshimo nodded, Tommy's panicked tone ineffective against his own collected demeanor. "Try not to worry; I'll be right there. I'll be as quick as I can."

Tommy was left staring at his watch as the connection was cut. That was definitely a huge weight off his chest, finally being able to contact Moshimo about everything that was going on. Lola nodded and placed a comforting hand on Tommy's shoulder.

"I told you it would be okay." She smiled.

"No, no! That's _not_ okay!" Bjorn suddenly yelped, almost smacking his robot's chin as he lifted his head back up. "Moshimo's coming _here_? I can't do this _now_ ; h-he can't see me like this!"

"Listen, we can't know what'll happen until he gets here, but our first priority is taking care of Protoboy." Tommy told the hysterical boy firmly. "Okay?"

Bjorn held his tongue and nodded; it was true that most of all he just wanted Protoboy to go away. He cursed himself internally for feeling so scared of what would happen once the Professor arrived but had no idea what he'd even say to his old teacher once he showed up. What would Moshimo say to him? Just how angry would he be to see him? Bjorn had stabbed him in the back then used everything he'd taught him to try and destroy his robot multiple times; there was no _way_ Moshimo would be happy that he had been living under the same roof as Robotboy for almost a week now.

He couldn't even begin to imagine how awkward the interaction would be.

Tommy and Lola could only watch from the window as Robotboy battled his brother, trying his best to defend his friends and home. Robotboy told himself to rememver what he had decided on the way home from Bjorn's town; he wasn't going to let his familial feelings for Protoboy get in the way anymore. Protoboy had established himself as a threat to all he held dear and it was his _duty_ to make sure he couldn't threaten his family any longer.

From inside the house, the kids jumped as they suddenly heard the front door unlocking. Lola looked at Tommy, her face suddenly filled with panic.

"My parents aren't supposed to be home this early!" He gasped. How would he explain this to them? He couldn't just pretend that everything was normal; even someone as clueless as his dad would surely notice two giant machines shooting at each other in his back garden. What if they just strolled into the garden and Kamikazi or Protoboy injured them? Or _worse_?

He looked over at Bjorn who was still crying on the floor and figured that Bjornbot wasn't going to budge either as long as his creator was non-responsive, so there would be _that_ to explain as well. Whoever this was, they had come home at the worst possible time.

He was going to have to tell them, or think of something quickly!

Lola opened her mouth to ask Tommy what they should do, if they should hide or move quickly to distract his parents and get them somewhere safe when they suddenly recognized a familiar voice.

"Hey! You guys! What the heck's going on back there?"

Tommy and Lola both gawped in disbelief as they watched Gus rush into the kitchen.


	10. when did i give him my house key?

"Firstly, _how_ did you get in here?" Tommy demanded, still in shock.

"You gave me a key like a year ago, remember?" The ginger boy replied casually.

Tommy looked like he was searching for a comeback when he remembered that that was true. Why did he _do_ that anyway?

"Whatever, look, this really isn't a good time-"

"I know, I know. Tommy, listen. I came to say sorry-"

"Gus! Protoboy's in my garden!" Tommy interrupted him and pointed to the window, where a superactivated Robotboy had just hit the other robot full on with a rocket.

"Oh. Woah, look at that!" Gus ran up to the window not even trying to mask his excitement at the fight. "Robotboy's really going at it!"

"I'm worried though." Tommy said impatiently. He knew that the Professor was usually ridiculously speedy when it came to visiting him when he needed him, but the seconds were beginning to feel like hours. It felt like ages since he had contacted him. "Kamikazi's out there too, so there's _that_ to worry about even if Protoboy doesn't…"

Gus' excited grin fell once he registered how anxious Tommy looked, and remembered why he had come back to Tommy's house in the first place.

"I really wanted to apologize though, man." He continued, suddenly sounding a lot more solemn. "Not even just about today, about everything."

Lola looked on in surprise, almost distracted from the fight altogether by Gus' words. Who _was_ this boy? Had Gus been replaced by aliens?

Tommy opened his mouth to reply, although with everything going on he couldn't even really process what Gus was saying, when Bjorn started sobbing harder and grabbed onto Gus' leg.

"Woah! What's up with him?" Gus looked down at the hysterical boy who was clinging to him like a limpet and was only met with a look of desperation from Bjornbot who was still trying to hold him steady. Seeing Bjorn in such a state ignited guilt within him; was this because of the stunt he pulled with Kurt earlier on? Was this because of _him?_

"Wackjob's fine. I think." Tommy said. "He's just having a moment. I think he'll be okay soon."

Of course, _none_ of them would be okay if the battle didn't go in Robotboy's favour. Protoboy had already established that he had no problem with attacking humans. Tommy didn't want to verbalize that out loud though; the whole concept and thinking about losing his best friend was too scary. Besides, he was pretty sure that everyone was thinking it anyway.

Thankfully, an alert beep from his watch kept him from dwelling on this thought any longer. Tommy, Lola and Gus looked towards the window and saw Moshimo's hovercar lower itself into his garden, right in front of his door.

"Thank God, Moshimo's outside." Tommy breathed. "Why did he park out there?"

"Who cares? Let's go!" Lola grabbed Tommy's hand and pulled him towards the door. Neither of them cared that it wasn't guaranteed for them to be safe outside anymore; Robotboy needed to know that they were all still there for him.

Tommy glanced back nervously at Gus who still had Bjorn attached to his leg. Bjorn had started babbling in Swedish about them all being dead if they went out there.

"Don't worry, guys." Gus gave a confident smile. "I'll look after him; just go to Moshimo!"

Tommy quickly nodded gratefully and rushed out the door with Lola.

"What are you doing here, you foolish man?" They heard Kamikazi bellow from up in his helicopter. "There's nothing you can do against a machine like this!" He hadn't even considered that the Professor might show up, but this was even better! He would get to witness Moshimo's own creation bring about his downfall.

Robotboy turned his head and observed what was going on below, suddenly panicked at the sight of his creator and his two friends out in the open. He let out a frightened beep in an attempt to get them to move out of the way, but Protoboy's rage had reached maximum capacity and his weapons had begun powering up as soon as he saw Moshimo. He shoved his younger brother out of the way and within milliseconds had propelled a missile from his arm gun.

"Kids, watch out!" Moshimo quickly grabbed Lola and Tommy and ducked behind his parked aircraft, all three of them wincing as the explosion impacted the other side and shards from the hovercar and clumps of dirt came flying over the top.

"What do we do?" Tommy asked breathlessly. "He's so angry! He's not gonna stop until he destroys Robotboy!"

From their hiding spot they heard Protoboy's mechanical rumble; **"MOSHIMO, COWARD. COME OUT. WITNESS MOST POWERFUL CREATION DESTROY YOUR PRECIOUS ROBOTBOY."**

The Professor sighed and placed the kids down.

"You stay here where it's safe." He said quietly. "I didn't want to have to do this, but I have no choice."

Tommy and Lola watched as the Professor quickly retrieved a large metal object and slung it over his shoulder. Lola noticed Tommy's terrified expression and reached down to hold his hand comfortingly. She hated seeing Tommy so stressed.

"Protoboy!" Moshimo shouted from on the ground, alerting the superactivated battle robot. He started down at his elderly creator and his circuits ignited with anger; his creator, who would never appreciate what a superior machine he was. His creator, who would always favor Robotboy over him. His weak creator who's first mistake was creating robots who had no other purpose other than to be, in his opinion, mellow slaves to humans; he would show him. He would show the whole world that he could be so much more than that.

" **YOU FINALLY SHOW YOUR FACE, WEAK CREATOR."**

The old man observed his prototype battle robot and gave a sad, remorseful smile. "I'm sorry it could not have ended better, Protoboy."

With precise speed, he pointed a black, single-barreled cannon into the sky and it automatically locked on to Protoboy's position. Before the robot had time to react in any way, he was hit in the chest by a sharp blue laser that passed through his chest plate with no visible impact.

A few seconds passed and as Robotboy stared in confusion, Protoboy gave a distorted laugh.

" **IS THAT ALL YOU-"**

Suddenly, Robotboy heard the sound of Protoboy's internal system shutting down and found himself watching his brother power down and deform. As quickly as he had transformed into a giant, intimidating killing machine, he now fell to the ground, completely deactivated.

Robotboy couldn't believe that it was suddenly over so quickly. Protoboy was now small and useless. He lowered himself down to the ground and, raising his powerful arm, threw a punch at his deactivated brother and shoved him down further into the earth. He continued this onslaught until he felt Tommy's small hand tap him rapidly.

"Ro, it's okay! Stop! He can't hurt anyone anymore."

The superactivated robot stopped and looked at his friend through the billowing dust and saw that he was smiling. Protoboy truly couldn't hurt Tommy anymore. Tommy looked up at the sky for Kamikazi's helicopter and noticed that he and Constantine had frantically turned tail and retreated upon witnessing Protoboy fall to the ground. Looking over at Moshimo and Lola, Robotboy was put at ease to see that his friend and father were safe too.

"It's all okay, Ro." Tommy and Robotboy shared a relieved hug as Robotboy shrank back down to his activated form.

"Tommy, Lola, alright?" The little robot asked. "Not hurt?"

Tommy laughed and Lola shook her head.

"We're fine, I promise!" Lola said.

Tommy nodded, still shaking slightly from the frightened adrenaline rush. "Everyone else is fine too. Look, even Kamikazi ran off."

Robotboy giggled and squeezed his best friend's hand. "Like always."

"Well done, Robotboy." The two looked up as they saw Professor Moshimo advancing towards them with a kind smile on his face. "I'm very proud of you for making sure your friends were safe. That could have ended very badly. Tommy, thank you for letting me know what was going on. That was a very smart move."

"I'm so happy you could make it!" Tommy babbled. "What was that gun thing anyway?"

"Ah. It's a machine that caused forced deactivation upon impact. It emits a signal that disrupts his mechanisms and forced him to shut down. I completed it after the last time we had to deal with Protoboy, as he can't just be switched off like Robotboy can." He said, gesturing Tommy's watch. Tommy looked down at the deactivated Protoboy who had been battered and hammered into the ground and realized that although Protoboy was a destructive and dangerous menace, he _was_ still a creation of Moshimo's. He figured it must not have felt great to be forced to effectively kill one of your children, no matter how out of control they had gotten.

"Thank you, Moshimo!" Robotboy said happily. "Save Robotboy; save friends!"

"It's quite alright." The Professor smiled down at the three of them. "I'm just glad that everyone is alright and no one got hurt."

Back inside the house, Gus was still confined to the kitchen floor with no view of the window thanks to the sobbing limpet boy who was still clinging onto him for dear life. Bjornbot had been standing on the kitchen counter in front of the window and acting as their lookout, and Gus suddenly noticed that he'd become extremely animated and excited.

"BB! What is it, boy?"

"Ja!" The humanoid robot turned to Gus and made eager thumbs up signs. "Okej! Okej!"

"What is it with you two and speakin' gibberish? I can't understand a word-"

"Is he gone?" Bjorn croaked from on the floor, his face still wet and his cheeks pink from crying.

Bjornbot nodded and grinned ecstatically. "Ja! Smash!"

"Woah! Sweet!" Gus patted Bjorn's shoulder and moved to get up. "Hear that? Everythin's okay now!"

Bjorn just groaned and made an attempt to wipe his face. He was more worn out than anything; it turned out that a combination of water and Gus distracting him by telling him stories about times his mother's cow had run away and they had been forced to go all over the town looking for her had done wonders to bring him out of his panic. Although extremely relieved that the crisis seemed to be over, he found that he was too drained to even stand up now.

"Hey, you gotta get up, dude. Tommy's parents are gonna be home soon." Gus told him and attempted to gently nudged Bjorn's head off his lap. He just earned another defiant groan in response. "If you don't get up I'll tell your mom you stayed up past midnight the other day."

Bjornbot seemed absolutely horrified at that statement and watched as his creator sat up shakily while using Gus as support.

"Don't tell anyone about this or I'll kill you. Don't think I won't." He muttered weakly and Gus just laughed.

"Your secret's safe with me!" He snickered. "In exchange for a chocolate bar. The nice ones as well, not the cheap ones I find in the trash cans at school. BB, what are they doing out there? Not to interrupt whatever tender moment's goin' on but can we eat yet?"

Bjornbot tore himself away from the window where he'd been watching them all intensely. "Uh. Robotboy…pappa?"

"Oh, Moshimo? Yeah, Tommy called him." Gus said, still thinking about food.

Bjorn felt his stomach lurch as he clung to the chubbier boy, suddenly feeling too weak to support his own weight again.

"I'b …feel ill."

"Dude, if it's that much of a big deal you don't _have_ to get me a chocolate bar." Gus said and started patting him on the back like he was a baby. "It was just a joke-"

Realizing the error of his ways, he could only sit there while Bjorn leant his head on his shoulder and vomited down his back.

Still giddy with the excitement of witnessing Protoboy's defeat, Bjornbot couldn't hide how hilarious he found the whole situation and started outright laughing at Gus' annoyed expression.

"Hey, shut up! If I hadn't have arrived when I did that would've been you, y'know!"

"Ugh…"Bjorn just groaned as Gus shouted in his ear. "I've never been so humiliated in my life-"

" _YOU?_ How d'you think _I_ feel?" Gus yelled, outraged. "The G-Man's gotta keep his appearance fresh, y'know! What'd I tell you about eating that cafeteria slop? This just proves you gotta listen to the G-Man in future, B."

"What on earth are you guys _doing?_ " Gus looked up to see Tommy and Robotboy, trying hard to stifle their laughter since they had come into the kitchen. They were closely followed by Lola and Professor Moshimo, the latter of which was carrying Protoboy's deactivated form.

Bjornbot just fell about laughing so hard he overbalanced and fell into the sink, while Gus just mentally accepted that they were going to make fun of him for the rest of his life because of this.

"Aw, Gus! You're like a mother hen taking care of her baby!" Tommy chuckled.

Lola suddenly burst out, "A mother _goose!"_

The entire party, bar Gus and Bjorn, all fell into hysterics. It felt relieving to finally let out all the tension that they had all been feeling. Even Gus ended up cracking a smile eventually. He was still planning on apologizing to Tommy later, but at least everyone was safe now. If it meant he got see the smiles on his friends' faces, he didn't mind being the butt of the joke.

"Here we go, sick boy. Turn around now." Still trying not to laugh, Gus lifted Bjorn's head off his shoulder and used his shirt to wipe his mouth, seeing as it was already ruined and he'd have to change it anyway.

"Ah, it sure has been a while!" Professor Moshimo greeted his former student with a small wave and an oddly fond smile. "Hello, Bjorn."

Bjorn whimpered and tried to curl up in Gus' lap again but was promptly shoved away. "I'b…I sicked on Gus."

The Professor nodded, trying his very best to keep a straight face. "Indeed you did."

"I'm…really sorry-"

" _Who_ you sayin' sorry to?" Gus cut him off. "Because you'd _better_ make sure it's me!"

They all dissolved into laughter once more, although Bjornbot had become confused at this point and returned to bending the spoons that he'd found in the sink.

* * *

"I don't know how I'm gonna explain the garden to my parents when they get home." Tommy stared out of his bedroom window at his back yard that now looked more like a warzone. Worst comes to worst, his mom would just assume that his dad was somehow responsible.

"It's sad that the Professor couldn't stay for dinner." Lola commented. "But I suppose Miumiu was wondering where he'd got to."

The Japanese inventor had left their house an hour ago, wishing them well and promising that they would talk more about what happened in the near future. He could see that they were all tired and could do with some rest. Since Bjorn was knocked out from a combination of exhaustion and humiliation, Moshimo had told Tommy that he wasn't angry at him, like Tommy had expected, and "whatever it is that you're doing to Bjorn; keep at it."

The Professor was initially going to take Protoboy back to his lab with him and make sure he was destroyed for good this time, but Robotboy had practically pleaded his father to let him take him and do it himself. After all that time spent battling his tyrant brother, Moshimo understood that he would need closure. He allowed Robotboy to take the deactivated Protoboy to destroy at a later date.

Robotboy took his brother and decided to keep him by his charging station so he could keep an eye on him at all times. Even though there was no way he could become active again, as his power had been completely drained during the forced deactivation, Robotboy still wanted to make sure that he watched over his brother. He wasn't taking _any_ chances.

"Ro, you're sure it was a good idea taking Protoboy back here? Why not just let the Professor destroy him?" Tommy asked him softly.

"Protoboy, still brother." The little robot stared down at the table they were sitting at, his ears drooping sadly. "Make much trouble, always. Robotboy know. But, still brother. Want be one to destroy Protoboy."

Tommy and Lola exchanged looks of sympathy.

"I understand, buddy." Tommy gave him a gentle pat on the head. "You can do it whenever you're ready."

Robotboy nodded gratefully. He was so _happy_ that he had such supportive friends.

"Yo! Here comes your local 5-star chef!" Gus burst into the room carrying a stack of pancakes on a tray.

"Gus, did you steal those?" Lola asked in disbelief.

"Nah, I made 'em just now!" Gus placed the tray down on the table to Lola, Tommy and Robotboy's amazement. "I mean, normally I'd have eaten them all by now, but, uh, think of this as an apology."

Tommy and Lola exchanged amused glances.

"That's so like you, to apologize with food." Tommy chuckled. "Thanks, dude. And I'm sorry I yelled at you in the street today, I was just really stressed about loads of things and-"

"Don't worry, man. I totally deserved that. You were right, I gotta check myself every once in a while. Doesn't mean I'm gonna cut down on drinking the chocolate milk in your fridge anytime soon, though."

Tommy grinned and punched his arm playfully. "Yeah, well, you're my friend. Wouldn't have it any other way."

As he watched his friends tuck into their pancakes, Robotboy beeped happily with the knowledge Tommy and Gus were okay again. Everything felt right again, seeing them laughing and joking with each other like how it usually was.

They heard Bjorn stir from where they'd carried him to sleep in Tommy's bed and mutter something incomprehensible.

"Hey, Wackjob! Are you awake?" Tommy called out to him. "There are pancakes here! I think you should eat something; it'll help you feel better."

Bjorn glared at the three human kids and Robotboy who were sitting around the little table and eating pancakes. He looked back at Bjornbot who had been sitting next to him and holding his hand since he'd carried him up to Tommy's room.

"Brother, I had such a bad dream." He muttered. "First of all, I sat on Gus' lap. Then, Moshimo was in Tommy's kitchen and I then puked on Gus in front of him-"

"That wasn't a dream." Tommy snickered, watching Bjorn's face fall in horror. "That happened like an hour ago. Sorry, man."

"No worry!" Robotboy added cheerfully. "Tommy give you spare sweater! All clean."

The rest of the kids turned to face the wall, trying hard not to splutter with laughter at the fact that that was what Robotboy assumed Bjorn was most stressed about. Bjorn just pulled the covers over his head in silence upon realization that that nightmare had actually happened and started whimpering while Bjornbot delivered comforting head pats.

"He'll be okay." Tommy reassured the others, trying not to laugh out of respect for any remaining strands of Bjorn's dignity. "I think _._ "

Gus just grinned and seized the opportunity. "More pancakes for me."


	11. safe

**A/N: i hav had extreme word block i have no idea what i'm doin. this chapter is kinda?filler? bc i got so overwhelmed with what was happening within the plot lmao**

Tommy woke up on Saturday morning and was pleasantly surprised to find that Gus hadn't raided his fridge in the middle of the night. He must be _really_ serious about making it up to him. It was almost weird having Gus stay the night and waking up to find all the snacks in the house still there. It was very nice; he'd make sure Gus got extra toast in the morning. His friends were so precious.

He looked over and saw that Robotboy was still deactivated and charging as he had left him. His small robot friend had been very reluctant to switch off and leave his friends unprotected for the night after all that had happened with Protoboy, but Tommy and Lola had managed to convince him that everything would be okay. He deserved to rest and recharge too, after all he had done to protect them the previous day. Robotboy had insisted on keeping the deactivated Protoboy next to his charging station though; even though it was impossible for him to become active again, Tommy knew that his best friend just didn't want to take any chances. If it was for Robotboy's peace of mind, Tommy didn't question him.

Gus was asleep in his hammock as usual and Lola had gone home the previous night. She had wanted to stay with them, for their comfort as well as her own, but they all knew that Lola's dad was very particular about her staying out without informing him first. After all, Lola's home life as the daughter of a wealthy ambassador was completely different to Tommy and Gus', and they knew that her dad was just trying to protect her from any potential dangerous people who wished to get at him through his daughter.

Bjornbot was propped up by Tommy's wardrobe next to the sleeping bag where Bjorn had been put for the night (Tommy had finally won his _own bed_ back from Gus and Bjorn). Tommy had helped him plug himself into a power outlet on his wall so he could recharge during the night while still being close to his creator. Tommy hadn't gotten much sleep during the night, _again_ , as Bjorn kept waking up in a panicked state and calling for his brother. He'd go back to sleep again once he saw that his robot hadn't gone anywhere, but Tommy had ended up having to spend a lot of time calming the other boy down and reassuring him that he was safe. Tommy could tell that he was having nightmares and they were what kept waking him up.

He thought about how strange his life had become lately; he had never expected to actually feel _concerned_ for someone who had,at one time, made it their life purpose to destroy his best friend.

He also never expected to live to see the day where _Gus_ made him pancakes. There really was a first for everything.

Speaking of Gus, the ginger boy suddenly woke up and practically fell out of his hammock.

"Hey, dude! What time is it?" He greeted cheerfully.

"Hey." Tommy smiled. "11am, why?"

"Aw, no! We missed the Human Fist."

"It's just reruns in the morning anyway, no big deal. How'd you sleep?"

"I had the best dream." Gus said blissfully. "I was running around this massive mall and all the shops were open but no one was there, so me and Robotboy just went around smashing the counters and eating loads of cake. Well, Ro didn't eat any cake obviously, but that was the best dream ever."

Tommy chuckled a bit. "I feel like you'd do that in real life. Anyway, how did you _even_ manage to get any sleep? I feel like I was awake most of the night; did Wackjob not wake you up?"

"Nah, dude." Gus looked over at the other blonde boy who looked moderately distressed even while sleeping. "I didn't hear nothin'."

Gus was lucky then, Tommy thought. He had no idea how Gus had managed to sleep through the whole night. Robotboy and Bjornbot were just lucky they could manually switch themselves off.

After activating Robotboy, he and Tommy and Gus busied themselves watching reruns of their favourite cartoons on the TV in Tommy's room. Tommy noticed that Robotboy couldn't go long without glancing over at his prototype brother who was still lying in doll form next to his charging station. He couldn't tell whether it was because he was concerned for him or nervous or if he was contemplating the fact that he was eventually going to have to destroy him, like he had told Moshimo he would. Tommy wondered if he would do it today; if he was even ready. How do you even go about asking something like that?

 _Yeah, so, when are you gonna smash your brother to pieces? Just wondering._

"Tommy garden okay?" Robotboy asked suddenly, remembering the state that Tommy's backyard had been left in after their fight.

The blonde laughed a bit and explained how their mother had arrived home and before Tommy could even real out excuses, she had settled on Dwight and Donnie as the culprits.

"She thinks they had some wild football game in the garden or something and it got out of hand." Tommy explained with amusement.

"Yeah, she'd never suspect you, man." Gus chipped in. "You couldn't catch a ball to save your life! You're not gonna be doing anything wild in that garden."

" _Thanks_." Tommy punched his arm in faux anger. It was a good thing though that his family was so naturally chaotic, in a weird way, as it pushed all suspicion away from Robotboy. Afterall, Donnie had been known to cause just as much destruction to their house just by throwing parties.

Robotboy chirped happily, glad to know that his friend wasn't in any trouble with his parents. He would feel awful and blame himself – even though Protoboy had been the one to come out of nowhere and try to attack them. He didn't want to think about Protoboy at the moment though; it made him feel sick thinking about what he was eventually going to have to do. He just concentrated on the fact that he loved his friends more. He loved Tommy and Gus and Lola and Moshimo and Miumiu and, even now, Bjorn and Bjornbot. He wouldn't allow his rouge brother to cause any of his friends and loved ones harm anymore. It was his _duty_ to stop him from endangering them ever again.

"Wha … what day is it…" They turned to see Bjorn stir from the sleeping bag. Tommy again noticed that he checked to make sure Bjornbot was still beside him before anything else.

"Saturday, dude. Where have you been?" Gus joked.

Bjorn just glared at him groggily. He was wearing the sweater that Tommy had given him since his suit was being cleaned and he had no sleep clothes anyway. Bjorn was slightly shorter than Tommy so his sweater was a loose fit; he looked so uncomfortable and it was overall very strange seeing him in non-fitted clothes. It brought about another daily existential realization that although Bjorn was this crazy, rich, genius child who lived on a mountain and made a robot double of himself at ten years old, he _was_ just a child. Him, Bjorn and Gus; they were all the same age.

"You can go back to bed if you want." Tommy said, finding himself suddenly taking a much softer tone. "I, uh, know you didn't get much sleep last night."

"What are you talking about? I got plenty of sleep." His muttered words stung with shame and he propped himself upright immediately.

Tommy sighed as everyone could see that he was lying out of pride, but felt it wouldn't do any good to argue with him and make him feel worse.

After he had activated Bjornbot, the humanoid robot seemed extremely defensive before realizing that he was still in Tommy's house and they weren't in any danger. His flesh brother looked awful though; he had obviously seen him in the morning before but he had never seen him look so run-down and disheveled. He could almost feel the nervous energy that was radiating from his human creator. He couldn't wait for Robotboy to finally destroy Protoboy. Maybe then, Bjorn would start to feel better.

Sensing the other robot's concerned state upon activation, Robotboy suggested that they both played with Tommy's action figures for a bit to distract him. Bjornbot had become better at controlling himself, with his help, but Robotboy still made sure to look out for him. If left worrying about Bjorn constantly without distraction, he was afraid that his nervous energy would fester and he'd just end up smashing things again.

While the two robots were busy inventing some imaginary world with the action figures, the human kids continued watching TV.

"What is this show?" Bjorn was sitting with them on the ground uncertainly.

"Oh, it's hectic! It's about this guy right-"

"Wait, who is she? Why did she come out of that air vent?"

"-dude, I was _just_ gonna explain that. What'd I tell you? Listening to the G-Man pays off."

Bjorn rolled his eyes but didn't protest as he listened to Gus explain what was going on in the wild cartoon they were watching. Tommy noticed that the two of them insulted each other a lot less since the Protoboy incident. He was also very surprised that Gus hadn't mocked Bjorn _once_ for throwing up on him after his panic attack, which was something he'd highly expect of Gus. To his knowledge it wasn't like Gus to be very empathetic, but he found really pleasant that Gus seemed to sense that Bjorn wasn't in a great mental state and was treating him _nicely._ There really _was_ a first for everything.

"Oh yeah,guys, the Professor said we could come over to his lab to have dinner today if we were up for it." Tommy said, suddenly remembering the message he had received last night while just about to go to bed.

"Aw, sweet! Free food!" Gus exclaimed.

"Uh. Yeah." Tommy sighed; some things about Gus would never change. "I'll just tell my mom we got invited round to Lola's or something."

He glanced over at Bjorn who was picking at his sweater sleeves nervously. " _All_ of us are invited?" He asked uncertainly, still staring at the floor.

Tommy couldn't help but smile a little. "Yes, all of us. Even you, Wackjob."

"Huh. I wonder what he's planning."

"What? He's not planning anything, he just wants to see us." Tommy said and Gus laughed. "Not everything's some big conspiracy, y'know. He'll probably wanna talk to us about Protoboy and make sure we're okay, but other than that he just wants to have dinner with us! We're his friends."

Bjorn just pretended to be engaged in whatever manic nonsense was going on on the TV. He wondered if he should make some excuse so he didn't have to go. Being surrounded by human friends who accepted him despite everything he'd put them through was weird. Thinking about Moshimo was weird. How would he explain himself? What would Moshimo say to him?

"Where're you going, dude?" Gus asked when he saw Bjorn stand up. "This is the best part, you're gonna miss it!"

"I have to use the bathroom. I'll be back." He muttered and headed out the room.

Gus sighed once he'd left. "He's gonna puke again, I'm telling ya."

"Should I go see if he's okay?" Tommy asked.

"Just wait a bit; I think he'll feel worse if you burst in on him. If he's in there ages go knock and ask if he's good."

Surprised at Gus' unusually mature handling of the situation, the blonde boy just nodded and concluded that it was a good idea. He knew that someone should eventually talk to Bjorn though; he would just end up having another breakdown if he kept pretending he was fine. Did he not realize that that could be avoided if he would just talk to them and tell them what was wrong? Tommy had just assumed that it would come to him eventually, but he realized now that they were probably going to have to teach him from scratch that when you have friends, it's okay to talk to them about things that worry you.

He looked over at Robotboy, who seemed lackluster even though he was playing with one of his favorite action figures with Bjornbot. He usually loved playing as the Human Fist; he would always jump up and make him fly around and save all the town's people, but he looked distracted and sad today. Robotboy was _also_ someone who Tommy should probably talk to.

Bjornbot was having a lot of fun playing the miscellaneous villain (he'd just picked up one of Tommy's robot toys because it had a cool arm gun) and was destroying the fake town that they had built out of Lego bricks. His shoulders then drooped in disappointment when he realized that the other machine hadn't reacted at all to his devious act and was just holding his action figure, passing it between his small metal hands occasionally.

The silver-haired robot beeped sharply to get his attention and Robotboy was torn from his thoughts.

"Oh! Robotboy sorry." He noticed that their Lego town had been destroyed and he hadn't even noticed. "Do again. I watch this time."

Bjornbot pouted. As much as he enjoyed destroying things, it just wouldn't be the same if he repeated it again. He shook his head and gestured that there would be no point when his playmate clearly wasn't into the game in the first place.

"Ah. Robotboy sorry." He repeated in a small voice, beeping sadly and rolling his action figure onto the floor. Bjornbot watched it roll sluggishly across the carpet and knock over a few more bricks. He had never seen Robotboy look so low-energy. He was _sure_ he had been fully charged during the night as well.

Pushing aside his burning urge to continue being destructive with the toys, he inched himself closer to him and, avoiding his large blue ears, came to rest his head on the other robot's shoulder. This was what humans did when someone was sad and they needed comforting, right? He'd seen it on TV anyway, in the weird drama shows that Mama Bjornson liked to watch.

Robotboy gave a surprised beep. He wasn't used to gentle behaviour from Bjornbot yet at all. "What doing?"

Bjornbot looked up at him and Robotboy registered a look of genuine worry.

"Okej?" He asked.

Robotboy stiffened a bit. He looked over at Tommy and saw that he and Gus were now busy on the phone to Lola, informing her of the Professor's invitation. He mustn't worry him. What kind of friend would he be if he made Tommy worry as well?

He was distracted now, though.

The blue robot lowered his tone. "Robotboy…not know."

Bjornbot blinked and emitted his Morse code-like bleep. "Ja?"

"Robotboy not know if it okay feel bad." He continued nervously. "Feel bad about…"

The other robot knew exactly who he was talking about, as he had suspected as much already. He glanced over at the deactivated Protoboy. It _was_ true that he hated him. It made him feel like he was going to combust with fury every time he let himself think about what Protoboy had done to his mother and his home. Even now, Bjorn was still clearly traumatized by what Protoboy had done. He wouldn't deny that he hadn't considered taking Protoboy into the garden the middle of the night and setting him on fire, just for the satisfaction. But he had stopped himself. Bjorn might not be alive it wasn't for Robotboy stepping in and defeating Protoboy. He owed him. He couldn't deprive his new friend of the closure he needed.

He _was_ his brother, after all.

"I sorry." Robotboy turned his head, almost in shame. "Robotboy know brother hurt you. Hurt family. Hurt Tommy and friends. But. Robotboy still wish, could be different. Wish Protoboy no have to go. You think Robotboy weak?"

Bjornbot shook his head fervently. "Nej!"

The smaller robot gave a small smile. That made him feel a little better; he knew that Bjornbot was too blunt in nature to lie about how he felt towards someone.

"Robotboy, sorry be so lame." He had noticed that Tommy had finished his phone conversation with Lola and he decided to stop talking about it now.

The humanoid robot shook his head again and hugged him suddenly, patting his back with as much gentle energy as he could manage. Robotboy was surprised, but felt oddly comforted.

"Ro is…strong boy." Bjornbot said into his shoulder. Robotboy could almost hear the physical ticking of the other's mechanisms under the strain of producing more than two words in a row. "Will be…okej."

The smaller robot smiled and hugged him back, tightly, bleeping in gratitude. Not only was he so proud of how hard Bjornbot had been working to better his human language communication, but hearing him use what he had been developing to comfort him made Robotboy feel like crying. He thought back to the first time they had ever met and Bjornbot was dunking some child's head in the toilet at school; he would never have envisioned a future where that same evil robot would be giving him a hug and reassuring him that everything would be okay. It almost took his mind off the horrible thoughts he had been having regarding Protoboy.

"Aw, look at those two!" Gus' shrill voice came from the other side of the room. "Are you two in love now?"

Bjornbot switched his entire demeanor and started growling defensively at him, while Tommy and Robotboy found themselves laughing in unison at the whole exchange.

It was good to see Robotboy smiling, Tommy thought. It was also nice to see that he and Bjornbot were actually getting along now to the point where they could sit that close, even hug each other, and neither of them ended up getting blasted across the room.

"Lola's coming round soon so we can all go to Moshimo's." Tommy informed them. "We haven't been there in ages!"

He noticed Bjornbot looking confused. "Oh, you and Bjorn are invited too, don't worry."

Bjornbot looked down at Robotboy uncertainly. "Pappa?"

"Yes!" Robotboy nodded. "Moshimo: Robotboy creator. So, like Robotboy dad!"

"Ah!" Bjornbot nodded.

"Speaking of Bjorn, should I go check on him?" Tommy turned to Gus.

"It hasn't been that long." Gus shrugged. "Go if you want."

"Why check?" Robotboy asked, perking up. "Everything okay?"

He noticed Bjornbot straighten, suddenly looking alert and worried.

"I'm sure he's fine, don't you guys worry." Tommy reassured them, heading for the door. "I bet I'm just worrying about nothi-"

As soon as he reached for his door handle, the door opened of its own accord and Bjorn yelped in shock when he came face to face with Tommy.

Gus burst out laughing and Tommy breathed a sigh of relief. "I was just coming to check on you; you were in there ages. Are you okay?"

Bjorn laughed and pushed past him. "What a question! Why would you ask that? I'm fine."

"Just wondering." Tommy raised an eyebrow and went to join him and Gus in front of the TV. "You looked kinda pale when you left the room. You didn't vomit again, did you?"

He had said it in a joking tone, almost dismissively, but Gus noted the look of pure shame that washed over the smaller boy's face in that instant. If it were him, or even Tommy, they would most likely be able to simply laugh it off, but it was obviously a bigger deal for someone so haughty.

"Tommy, dude. He wasn't _that_ pale. He's just Scandinavian; they're all pale over there." Gus joked. "Do you guys wanna play a video game 'til Lola gets here?"

"Yeah, sure." Tommy shrugged and went to set up his games console, also asking Robotboy and Bjornbot if they wanted to play too. As the robots settled down with them in front of Tommy's monitor, Gus managed to catch the brief look of gratitude for changing the subject that Bjorn had flashed him.

 _See? The G-Man **does** know what he's doing!_

For the next few hours, they busied themselves facing each other (and Tommy yelling at Gus who he claimed was using cheat codes while everyone was distracted). Bjorn spent most of the time sat close to his robot brother, reassuring him defensively that nothing was wrong when he caught Bjornbot giving him concerned looks.

Robotboy was happy to see Tommy enjoying himself after the previous stressful day. It further solidified the thought that he shouldn't burden him by bringing up Protoboy. He could deal with it himself; he was _his_ brother. He was adamant within himself that he wouldn't put his friends through any more stress. They would wait for Lola to arrive and then they would go and spend some time with his dear family: Moshimo and Miumiu. Afterwards, he would destroy Protoboy for good and everyone dear to him could finally rest easy.

 _That was what was going to happen, so there was no point bringing it up anymore._


	12. dinner party

"Free food! Free food! Free f-"

"Yeah, Gus. You said. Like fifty times." Tommy sighed over at his friend who was eagerly staring over at the dinner table.

"I wonder what they're gonna cook?" Lola smiled excitedly. "Maybe they'll make udon noodles like last time!"

"I hope so!" Gus exclaimed. "You guys had better get in there quick before the G-Man devours that entire bowl."

Lola shot him a threatening side glance. "Shut up, Gus. Don't think I won't stab you with a fork."

When they had arrived at Moshimo and Miumiu's secret lab and combined living quarters, the Professor was still busy getting ready for them. He was dashing around in and out of the main dining room and he had told his guests that they could busy themselves watching TV on his massive monitor screen in his work room. Miumiu had explained that instead of just getting ready for their visit during the morning, he had gotten distracted because it was 'wild west hour' on the movie channel and had lost track of time.

Every time the Professor had dipped back into the room to take something out and apologise again for being so disorganised, Bjorn had gone stiff and practically hidden behind Lola.

Robotboy was eagerly giving Bjornbot a tour of his creator's living space. The Professor had been forced to move home base several times since he and Miumiu had been forced to go into hiding, but Robotboy had found himself feeling connected to every one of their secret labs. As the Professor was the closest thing the small robot had to a father, it felt just like coming back to a family home whenever he visited him.

"And this Moshimo _other_ desk!" Robotboy proudly showed the humanoid robot one of four desks that were in the workroom. Bjornbot seemed a lot more interested whenever he saw anything that looked like it could be used as a weapon of some sort. He pointed at a cereal bar wrapper that was lying on one of the desks and tilted his head at him, which the other robot had taken to mean: 'tell me what this thing is.'

"Oh. That just food holder." Robotboy explained. "Gus collect many! In Tommy room."

Bjornbot nodded. He was distracted from seeing if he could bend one of the spanners that he'd found lying around when the door to the room slid open and Miumiu appeared. Tommy, Gus and Lola greeted her cheerfully from the couch while Bjorn tried not to make it look too obvious that he was using Lola as a shield; as if Miumiu wouldn't notice him if he continued to shrink behind her.

Robotboy beeped happily when all of a sudden, a small robot with a pink color scheme and bow dashed past Miumiu and into the room.

"Robotboy! Friend!" She chirped happily and was quick to hug him. Robotboy hugged her back and emitted the same cheerful beep.

"Long time no see Robotgirl!" He said happily as they broke the hug.

"Yes! Long time no see friends!" Robotgirl said and flapped her small metal arms in excitement as she was greeted by Tommy, Lola and Gus. "How been?"

"We've been good!" Lola smiled. "It's so nice to see you again!"

She looked sideways at Bjorn who suddenly looked like he'd been slapped in the face.

"What?"

"There's _another_ one?" The shock of seeing Robotgirl for the first time had finally thrust him out of his static position behind Lola.

"Yeah, this is Robotgirl!" Tommy was amused at how shocked Bjorn looked. "I'm surprised you didn't know about her. Didn't you used to spy on Moshimo like, _all_ the time?"

"He must have kept her exceedingly well hidden." Bjorn muttered. "I've never even _heard_ of her."

"Well, she _was_ created after Robotboy." Tommy shrugged. "With the amount of people who were after him, it's no wonder the Professor was extra careful."

"I just came to say that dinner is almost ready." Miumiu informed them softly. "Again, my fiancé apologises for the wait."

"It's no problem at all, don't worry about it!" Tommy shook his head. "We knows you guys are real busy."

"Belly Man is ready to get busy with that udon too-"

"Gus, will you shut up?"

Miumiu giggled and headed back out into the kitchen where she was helping her fiancé prepare the food.

* * *

Whilst waiting, the kids had become engrossed in an argument about the Human Fist lore, with Gus insisting he knew everything and everyone else was wrong. Tommy wished that the conversation would just end though now because Lola and Bjorn had over complicated everything by over analyzing all the superhero's abilities.

On the other side of the room, Robotgirl was still hopping with the excitement of seeing her friends again. Since she wasn't allowed to leave the Professor's secret lab for her own safety, visitors always made her very happy.

Bjornbot was surveying the smaller robot with part-curiosity and part-shock. He had been trained in the past to seek out and destroy Robotboy, who was now his friend, and had been taught that completing this task would ensure his place as the world's strongest fighting robot. He had never factored in the existence of _other_ Moshimo robots. Protoboy had already been a shock, but Robotgirl was so much like his new friend in appearance that he found himself very taken aback. Of course, there were differences, such as where Robotboy was blue, she was pink, and she had a bow atop her head and what looked like a pink skirt, but she was still the most like Robotboy that he had ever come across. He wondered if she was as strong as him, or perhaps even stronger? In that case, where would that place him? The world's second or third-strongest fighting robot? Could she also superactivate like he and Robotboy could? Was he going to fight her too? He wondered if Bjorn would snap back to his previous mentality upon seeing her and order him to fight Robotgirl. That would be weird.

He clicked out of analyzing her when he realized that the robotic girl was smiling and waving at him.

"Hello! I Robotgirl! Nice meet!" She held her hand out to him, still beaming. It had been so long since she had met any new people. Meeting other robots was even _more_ exciting for her.

Bjornbot stared down at her extended hand, then looked at Robotboy as if waiting for confirmation on what he should do. Should he remove her hand? Was she challenging him?

Robotboy just giggled at the entire exchange and how confused the humanoid robot looked.

"It ok!" He reassured him. "Robotgirl good friend! She like, Robotboy sister. She want shake hand!"

Bjornbot looked back at the smaller machine before taking her hand cautiously. Robotgirl shook his hand, still visibly buzzing with excitement.

"Nice meet!" She repeated. Was there some kind of happy energy transfer when they shook hands? Bjornbot suddenly found himself feeling her innocent enthusiasm. Meeting new robots _was_ kind of exciting, now that he'd taken in all that was happening.

He nodded back at her and ended up just repeating, "Nice!"

"Robotboy new friend funny." The pink-themed robot giggled. "Where find him?"

"Robotboy always knew Bjornbot! Knew for long time. He not _always_ so good. But, good friend now! Robotboy trust!"

The silver-haired robot felt a hot flash surge through him, which was probably the closest he would ever feel to blushing. It felt nice to hear his friend speak well of him to his sister. He had never really been introduced to anyone before, besides Moshimo's old robotics class when he was only a few days old and Bjorn was showing him off to all the other students.

"He no talk good?" Robotgirl asked.

Robotboy emitted a reassuring beep. "Not _so_ good, but he understand all okey-dokey! He learning though! Robotboy help teach! Bjornbot speak whole sentence today! Right?"

"Ja!" Bjornbot nodded proudly, grinning.

"Well done! Robotgirl proud!" Recognising that there had been some form of achievement, Robotgirl clapped her hands together and hopped off the ground again. "But, why built like creator and human friends? Are therapy robot?"

Robotboy shook his head and giggled. Did 'therapy robots' look like humans? What was Moshimo developing _now?_

"No! He just like us; fighting robot!"

"Ah!" Robotgirl beeped happily and suddenly stood with her fists clenched in a defensive stance. "Want fight Robotgirl?"

Bjornbot's entire face lit seemed to light up at that. "Ja!"

"None of that, guys!" Tommy suddenly called from the couch. "We don't want the Professor to have to move again after you guys smash up his lab, do we?"

All three of the robots slumped with disappointment at this.

"Now what do?" Robotboy asked. Bjornbot had gathered by now that all of his suggestions would ultimately get rejected, as they often came with some sort of fire hazard.

"Robotgirl want go talk Lola! See in a bit!" She dashed off to the couch where Lola was sitting, waving goodbye to the two as she left.

Robotboy was pleased at how this tour of Moshimo's living-space was going; Bjornbot had seen all _four_ of the desks and now he had even met Robotgirl! As he watched his sister spring onto Lola's lap and hug her gleefully, he found himself glad to see the two of them together again. Since Robotgirl couldn't leave and venture out into the outside world much since she was still very naïve about the dangers of the human world, she didn't ever get to spend much time with Lola. Robotboy could see that they got on very well. He could tell that she was always happy whenever she got to see Robotgirl because it meant there was another girl around for her to talk to for once. He knew that she often felt left out, and even Tommy had mentioned it to him a few times. Tommy didn't always pick up on it, but he occasionally worried about Lola feeling like an outcast in their group of boys. Seeing her and Robotgirl together was always very pleasant for everyone.

"Okay, Gus, stop talking about who could win in a fight between the Human Fist and the Human Fish. Nobody cares." Tommy groaned, still slumped on the couch.

"I care! And I'm right." Gus scoffed. "The Fist has intense strength but how's he gonna battle underwater? Huh?"

"He would find a way!" Lola said, still balancing her pink robot friend on her lap. "He always does. The Human Fish isn't even cool."

"Says you! I think he's cool. Official G-Man stamp of approval." Gus looked to the side and muttered, " _I believe in you_."

"What?"

"Nothin'."

"I wonder when food's ready?" Tommy mused. "Hey, Wackjob, you wanna come with me to check if they need any help?"

Bjorn's breath hitched in his throat as Tommy spoke to him; he then quickly tried to mask his startled expression.

"Actually, I should… use the bathroom before we eat." He pushed himself off the couch and Tommy watched suspiciously.

"But I'm pretty sure it's gonna be ready soon."

"It's fine! If I'm not out by the time it comes, no need to wait for me!" Bjorn insisted, his tone suggesting he was in a hurry to leave the room.

"Okay." Tommy muttered tentatively and watched him exit.

Gus leaned back on the sofa nonchalantly. "I'm gonna take his bread roll."

* * *

Tommy waited around ten minutes and there was no sign of the dinner nor Bjorn. Since Lola was busy with Robotgirl who was showing off some her new features that she had had installed since they last saw each other and Robotboy was busy trying to deter Bjornbot from drinking battery acid, Tommy took the opportunity to slip out of the room.

As he navigated the corridors of Moshimo's base, he wondered where the other boy had gotten to. He passed the bathroom; the door was open and he could see that there was no one inside.

"Where did Wackjob go?" He said to himself quietly. He hoped that being in the same space as Professor Moshimo hadn't catapulted his mindset back to how it was before Protoboy attacked his home. He hoped he hadn't run off to try and steal Moshimo's blueprints or something. Not only would they have another enemy yet again, but he realized that if that happened they wouldn't be able to hang out with Bjorn and Bjornbot anymore. They made a fun addition to their group and there were so many things they hadn't done together yet.

Tommy rounded the corner and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw the blonde suited child curled up against a wall.

"You scared me!" Tommy breathed out, relieved to have finally found him. After his shock wore off he felt the concern creep in when he saw the usually confident boy with his head in his arms. "Are you okay?"

Bjorn looked up shakily and Tommy could see that he was tearful again; his face looked crimson with the shame of being discovered and he quickly directed his gaze away from Tommy's.

The slightly taller boy sighed and sat down beside him.

"Do you wanna talk?"

Bjorn shook his head, sobbing and scrubbing his wet face fiercely.

"Is it about Protoboy?" He asked softly. "Are you still scared of him?"

"I'm not scared! I never _was!_ "

Tommy gave a reassuring smile. "It's okay to be scared, y'know. I get scared all the time! Like, for example, remember that time you had all those robots and you made that fake sleepover party for Ro? And when they were gonna drop me and Gus into that tank of acid stuff; I was pretty scared then. It's perfectly normal-"

Tommy was cut off as Bjorn suddenly gave up on trying to pretend he wasn't crying and started wailing. He was lost for words as he watched him; crying like a ten year old would be _expected_ to cry.

"Hey, it's okay!" Tommy placed a comforting hand on the other boy's trembling shoulder but Bjorn quickly shook him off.

"N-no it isn't. What a- what am I doing here?"

"You're here to have dinner with Moshimo and the rest of us, of course." Tommy said. "Everything's alright."

"But you-you still remember _all_ of that! I mean, of _course_ you do. H-how could you forget?"

"All of what?"

"All that I did to you and your friends! What else would it be?"

"Oh." Tommy said, scratching his neck. "Yeah, I do. Kinda. But I'm really used to stuff like that happening. Honestly, if you think _you_ were bad, you should have seen some of the stuff Kamikazi did! I probably shouldn't have bought the sleepover thing up though. Sorry. That was a bad example."

"Y-you're just saying that because you're kind and you don't want to hurt my feelings." Bjorn sobbed. "Which makes me feel _worse_ because I'm awful yet you keep showing my brother and I such kindness. _Why?_ What are you planning with us? Revenge?"

"I don't think you're not awful. Not really." Tommy smiled. "All you _are_ right now is paranoid, dude. None of us are out to get you. We just wanna be friends."

Bjorn looked on in disbelief and hugged himself tighter, feeling his breathing quickening.

"You can't mean that. You can't r- _really_ mean that."

"I do! I'll pinky swear I do. Although, Gus _is_ gonna try and eat your food if you're not back in time for dinner, I'm gonna be honest."

The Scandinavian shook his head quickly, squeezing his arms within his trembling hands. "I can't go back in there. You can't make me go back!"

"Bjorn, _what's_ the matter? I told you, we're friends. Friends can tell each other anything." Tommy moved so that he was crouched in front of him. It was harder for the other to avoid eye contact this way.

"Wh-what if I go bad again?"

"Then we'll help you! We'll show you that you can have a great and fulfilling life and that you don't have to be malicious to get what you want. You don't have to hurt anyone!"

"But...but what will I be if I'm _not_ that person?"

"What do you mean?"

"W-what would drive me? I'd be directionless. That's _terrifying_! How do I become the greatest without being malicious? If I'm not the best, then who am I?"

"Well, you-"

"I can't _not_ be successful; why don't you understand? If I'm not successful, how will he notice me?"

Bjorn was on the verge of hyperventilating again and Tommy was becoming worried, realising he had little clue on how to reassure him. He wasn't sure he knew the answers to all these perplexing questions.

"Who is it you want to notice you?" Tommy made sure to keep his tone soft and calming, although the other boy was leagues from calm.

"I could never get any approval from my dad; no matter what I did I was _never_ good enough. I was always miles ahead any of the others at school but _still_ that was never good enough! There must be something fundamentally wrong with me. I'm _never_ good enough-"

"I'm sorry that happened." Tommy said pityingly. "I really do know how you feel. But he's just _one_ person! He sounds awful and you shouldn't let his opinion of you ruin you like this; you'll just make yourself ill."

"I feel like it's t-too late for that." Bjorn smirked and gave a shaky laugh. "He won't ever recognize how great I am unless I destroy his robot. It's the only way. He'll never praise me otherwise. I think about getting there and him praising me so frequently it's embarrassing…"

Tommy nodded when he realized that Bjorn wasn't even talking about his dad anymore.

"Moshimo, right?"

Bjorn buried his head in his hands in shame and sniffled.

"I understand." Tommy smiled warmly. He was relieved that Bjorn had finally told him. "Why didn't you just talk to me?"

"Because I tried to _kill_ you?" He suddenly yelled, his voice choked. "Besides, I've…never really had human being friends before. I d-didn't know how I should talk to you at all. I _still_ don't."

"Well, you _do_ live up on that mountain with a robot who only has like 5 programmed words, so it's not really surprising." Tommy said. "Speaking of; Bjornbot's been worried about you too! Of course you'd know how he works better than I do, but he'd pass the Turing Test, especially now that he has an emotion chip. Robotboy and I have noticed how concerned he is for you; on the same level that both of us are. He just, can't really express it as well I guess."

Bjorn gave a guilty whimper. "I don't know why he cares for me. Of course, I programmed him to but with all this time spent around Robotboy and you and all the others, he should have realized how awful I am by now. Surely? It's improbable that he has free will now yet he still cares about me."

"Of course he does!" Tommy laughed and bumped his shoulder lightly with his fist. "He loves you! You're the first person he ever saw, right? You're his brother; of course he still cares about you."

"But I'm a vindictive monster! Do you not _realize_ what I've done? Bjornbot was born into the world out of my own purely selfish intentions, yet he fights to protect me and he nearly got himself destroyed while fighting Protoboy."

"Yeah, but he was still _born_. I'm sure he enjoys his existence! If it wasn't for you he wouldn't be here. It doesn't matter how he got here or even that he's a robot; you gave him life! That's really amazing."

"It's overwhelming…"

"I'm sure it is. The things me and Robotboy get up to can get overwhelming too sometimes, but we always have each other and our other friends! Friends can help ground you when you're stressed out or lost. And _we're_ your friends! You can talk to any of us any time."

Bjorn looked at Tommy directly for the first time that evening. His panic was calming with every second.

"Really?"

"Yeah, really!" Tommy smiled. "So-"

Suddenly, they heard a shifting noise and both boys jumped as Professor Moshimo practically tripped out from around the corner and into their sight.

Tommy's eyes widened in confusion. "Professor, what're you _doing?_ "

"Oh, sorry. I couldn't help but overhear you two were talking." The elderly man admitted a little sheepishly, walking over to them now that he had just revealed himself.

Tommy felt Bjorn stiffen against him.

"H-how much did you hear?" He squeaked, feeling his face flame with humiliation.

"...Not much!"

"That's a lie, isn't it?" Tommy deadpanned.

"Alright, alright. I won't press you on it any further, Bjorn." He smiled. "I just thought you'd like to know that I'm incredibly proud of you."

"For what?" The Swede pretended he was more interested in his shirt cuffs.

"For all the progress you've made with Tommy." Moshimo continued. "I haven't been there to see much of it, regrettably, but I _can_ see that you are trying hard to better yourself. You are doing a fine job of helping him at that, Tommy!"

Tommy smiled proudly. "Nah, I didn't do _that_ much."

"I feel like I'm not better at all." Bjorn said in a quiet voice, still not able to look directly at his former teacher. "I can't believe you even allowed me into your home. I thought for sure you were luring me here to kill me or something."

Tommy and the Professor exchanged an amused glance.

"Why would I want to do that?" Moshimo asked. "Although, yes, your intellect exceeds that of your peers, you are _still_ just a child. Everybody makes mistakes when they're young. I feel like even _you_ forget that."

"See!" Tommy nudged Bjorn sportively. "Everyone deserves a second chance."

As Tommy had moved to stand up, Bjorn joined him shakily.

"But you still hate me, right? I backstabbed you-"

The old man shook his head. "I never hated you. I was _disappointed_ by the direction you had taken, but more than anything I was just worried for you. I thought about you a lot; even when all my other students had graduated. I thought about you and your battle robot and how young and mentally unstable you were to be getting involved in such a dangerous world. If anything happened to you, it would weigh on my conscious forever."

Bjorn stood in stunned silence, before sniffling again and wiping his damp eyes viciously.

"Even when I tricked Robotboy into almost _killing_ you?"

"Yes. Even then." The Professor nodded sincerely. "It makes me very happy to see you and Thomas getting along so well now. It seems Robotboy has sparked a friendship with your robot, also? It's all very good news and I am very glad that things have turned out this way."

Tommy told the two of them that he was going to go ahead and help Miumiu set up the dinner plates, tactically leaving them to catch up for a bit. As he left to navigate his way back to the living area, he saw the Professor had crouched down to give Bjorn and hug when the boy had started crying again and the sight filled Tommy with relief. He had never realized that Bjorn had weighed so heavily on the Professor's mind. He always appeared calm and collected, but Tommy could see that Moshimo was genuinely very happy to hear his former protegé apologize and make up with him. Bjorn certainly had a weight lifted from his shoulders too.

It had been a very productive evening, and they hadn't even had dinner yet!


	13. only a minute

**A/N: WOW I love my laptop that crashes every 8 seconds anyway here...u go!**

* * *

After the dinner, the party arriving back at Tommy's house were so exhausted they had almost fallen asleep on the ride home. Well, the humans did. Bjornbot attempted to eat one of the buttons whilst still in the hover car and Robotboy had his hands full trying to stop him.

When the Professor dropped them back at Tommy's, as he always liked to make sure they got home safely, he thanked them all for coming and having dinner with him and Miumiu.

"Thank you for inviting us, Professor." Lola smiled politely. "It was a lot of fun! I'm so glad I got to see Robotgirl again."

Tommy and Robotboy nodded in agreement and Tommy added, "Yeah, thanks! The food was delicious too."

"I was gonna say that bit." Gus grumbled.

"You're always welcome, children." The old man told them warmly as he stepped back into the hover car. "We always appreciate your company."

Bjorn, who was hiding behind Lola again, gave a shy nod and muttered some incoherent words of gratitude. Tommy giggled and Moshimo seemed to get the message as he smiled back at the small Scandinavian.

"Remember to fix your robot's irritant expulsion unit, Bjorn!" Moshimo called as the hover car began to rise. "You'll avoid around 80% of explosions if you do!"

Gus and Lola shared a confused look and decided not to ask and instead joined the others in waving goodbye until he was out of sight.

"Bye bye, dad!" Robotboy was the last to call out to him and stop waving.

Bjornbot frowned up at the now empty space in the sky and yelled, "Bye bye, pappa!"

His creator just sighed and led him indoors. "No, Bjorn. I told you; he isn't _your_ dad."

"I'd better go home now, my dad will be wondering where I am." Lola quickly hugged Tommy and Robotboy goodnight in turn. "Thanks for the fun evening!"

"Where's my hug?" Gus cried and Lola shot him a death stare.

"Where's my shrimp, huh? You ate my shrimp today, don't think I didn't notice."

Gus shrugged. "Fair enough. See ya at school tomorrow Lola!"

"G-man staying tonight?" Robotboy turned to their red-haired friend, as it was such a regular occurrence.

"Nah, my mom's getting a big edgy lately. I think I gotta go milk my horse tomorrow morning." Gus said glumly and Tommy tried his very best to hold back his laughter.

"Ah, okay. We'll see you at school tomorrow anyway."

Tommy and his robot friend watched Gus and Lola disappear from sight before heading back into the house themselves. It was slightly unnerving how Bjorn always managed to actually get into their house without them every single time. Perhaps lock picking was just second nature to him.

"Ro, I'm really proud of you for finally getting rid of Protoboy." Tommy said suddenly as they walked up the stairs to the front door.

Robotboy hesitated before nodding. "Yes. Robotboy had to…"

Tommy gave his friend a sympathetic smile. "I'm always here if you want to talk about it, y'know."

"Robotboy know." The blue robot said in a small voice. What else _could_ he say?

When the Professor had asked him during their visit if he had finally destroyed Protoboy, he was at loss as to what he should reply with.

His father was clearly pained by the whole situation; would it be _worse_ for him to know that he was still delaying doing it? That Protoboy wasn't exactly gone at all? Surely it would be better for Moshimo's head to at least have him _think_ that it was finally over and done with.

Instead, his prototype creation was currently tucked away in Tommy's garage.

If Robotboy himself didn't have to see him, it wouldn't play so heavily on his motherboard. If Tommy didn't have to see him, he wouldn't be reminded to probe him about _why_ the killbot hadn't been smashed to pieces yet. If Bjorn didn't have to see him, he wouldn't have to be reminded of the trauma Protoboy had put him and his mother through and end up stress vomiting in Tommy's bathroom again. And Bjornbot; he would probably have blasted a thousand holes in Tommy's room by now if Protoboy was still up there. Even if he _was_ deactivated and useless.

But now that he had lied, Robotboy knew that he only had a small window of time to fix this before he was found out. He had to get rid of his malicious brother _tonight._

* * *

Robotboy waited until deep into the night when he was sure everyone was asleep. Tommy and Bjorn had further tired themselves out getting excited over late night Robot Wars episodes. Tommy knew that they shouldn't be watching them when they had school in the morning, but they had had such a good evening and he felt his robotic friend needed some cheering up; he always liked watching robot fighting shows. Robotboy found he couldn't focus much on what was going on behind the screen though. He was about to have to do something awful.

Even when Bjornbot attempted to reenact one of the fight scenes with Tommy's toaster and ended up scaring himself when the toaster beeped, Robotboy didn't even smile.

Bjorn had fallen asleep in front of the TV and as Tommy pulled a blanket over him, he whispered that Robotboy could even come to school with them in his backpack the next day if he wanted to. If it would make him feel better. He always loved going to school with Tommy.

"Maybe." He had replied. He wondered what kind of emotions he would feel when tomorrow came. After the _act_. Would he even want to be around people?

He watched his friend fall asleep, telling him that he would self-deactivate when he felt ready to sleep. Tommy thought nothing of it; it wasn't unusual for Robotboy to want to stay up until Tommy went to sleep. Sometimes the robot just felt paranoid and worried for the boy's safety. Tommy knew that. He would let him stay up for as long as he needed if it calmed his worried circuits.

Before finally retiring to recharge, Bjornbot had nudged him gently with his head and emitted the softest beep he could manage, as not to wake the sleeping humans. Robotboy could see he was concerned and had noticed the dip in the usually perky battle robot's mood.

He had reassured the silver-haired robot that he was okay. Bjornbot would probably be angry if he found out Protoboy wasn't really gone. He may even try and eliminate the other battle robot himself. Robotboy wasn't sure he _wanted_ that. He calmly reassured Bjornbot that he was okay.

After Bjornbot had switched off and was tucked next to his sleeping creator and Tommy had fallen into a deep sleep also, Robotboy snuck out and made his way to the garage.

There was a small corner of the Turnbull's family garage containing storage boxes belonging to Deb. As stupid and insensitive as Dwight was, he was wary of his wife's wrath and never dared to disturb that section. Robotboy knew he would be safe there.

Checking again using his supersonic hearing that the house was fully asleep and no one would walk in on them, he cautiously removed the lid of the highest box in the stack and lifted his deactivated brother out.

He held him in his arms for a while before finally setting him down on the floor.

 _Okay._

It was time to finally secure the safety of his friends. His family. The whole town, even.

The robot's right arm had become a powerful drill and he now aimed it directly at Protoboy. A direct hit to the chest should break his central processor apart; he wasn't quite sure he would be able to face opening him up and destroying it himself.

The whirring drill hovered tentatively above the deactivated robot's chest. He rose his arm, but wasn't able to deliver the final, fatal blow.

 _It was okay!_ There was no need to keep Protoboy in existence! He wouldn't _feel_ it. He was deactivated. He wouldn't even have known this was to be his fate.

 _But Robotboy would._

The last thing Protoboy would have remembered was Moshimo shooting at him. Did he know then that he was never to experience anything ever again?

That was sad. Robotboy felt so sad for him.

"Come on." He said firmly to himself. "Protoboy not so good. Hurt friends. Hurt Moshimo. Hurt family. Can't stay. Can't."

He raised his arm again, his drill steadied and locked onto his brother's chest plate.

It would all be over soon. He just had to _do_ it.

His motherboard was drowning in apprehension and guilt. He was sure this was what humans felt when they said they felt 'sick'. He told himself to think about all the people he loved who would be so much better off without Protoboy terrorising them.

Tommy. Moshimo. Miumiu. Gus. Lola. Bjorn, and Bjornbot by extension. Robotgirl.

He hated lying to Tommy especially.

It seemed that the whole world would be a safer place without this rampaging killing machine who unfortunately _happened_ to his brother.

Maybe the Professor would miss Protoboy; after all he _had_ created him. Moshimo knew that he was better off out of the picture, though.

Suddenly, something from Robotboy's memory bank surged forth and hit him with a wave of horror.

He had never met or seen them personally, but Protoboy had _someone._ Someone who he called 'Dear'. He didn't know their actual name, or who they were, if they were human or machine, but somehow his brother had become involved with someone else.

The memory of that one singular phone call between them that he had witnessed caused Robotboy to drop his weapon almost immediately.

It wouldn't be fair. _Would it?_

They would never see Protoboy again, whoever they were. They would never know what had happened to him. What if this 'Dear' was as important to Protoboy as Tommy was to him?

Protoboy had, astonishingly, been able to form a seemingly loving connection with someone else. It was a small piece of evidence pointing to his brother's ability to feel anything other than rage and Robotboy hated that it suddenly gave him so much hope, but he could no longer ignore it now that he had remembered.

Robotboy retracted the drill and lowered his head in shame. He couldn't.

He needed to do something first.

He needed to reactivate him. Just for a bit. If the one his brother held dear ever reached him, he would like to be able to tell them the last thing Protoboy had said before he was destroyed.

It seemed the right thing to do.

Maybe he could even say goodbye to him, too.

Of course, if Protoboy tried anything drastic, Robotboy wouldn't hesitate to knock his batteries out and deactivate him once more. They _were_ still contained within Tommy's house after all.

Robotboy felt himself tremble in apprehension as went to activate his big brother for the final time.

 _Only a minute;_ he kept telling himself. _Only a minute, only a minute._

When the slightly bigger robot was finally awoken from his long sleep, his red optic sensors snapped open and darted as he scanned the room manically. When his gaze finally rested on Robotboy, he seemed astounded to see his brother, of all people.

Whenever he battled Robotboy he _always_ found himself with his Dear the next time he found himself conscious. What was with this change of events?

" **BROTHER."** Protoboy's usually harsh tone was noticeably more bewildered.

Robotboy tried hard to keep himself stoic and emotionless.

 _Only a minute! Only a minute! Only a minute!_

The younger robot went to open his mouth but Protoboy suddenly beat him to it.

" **LITTLE BROTHER?"** He queried, tilting his head in what seemed to be pure astonishment. **"YOU WERE...MERCIFUL?"**


	14. comics are for reading

"Are you sure you don't wanna come to school with us today, Ro?" Tommy asked.

It had been a few days since Moshimo's dinner party and he had noticed that his robot friend had been acting strange. He didn't radiate the same level of sadness as he had done a few days ago, but Tommy was still growing increasingly worried about him. Disposing of Protoboy must have taken a bigger toll on him than expected.

Robotboy gave a small smile and shook his head. "No worry, Tommy. Robotboy tired. Stay home for day."

Tommy could still see something was off about the whole situation; Robotboy usually jumped at the opportunity to go to school with his friends. He looked over at Bjorn who was scolding his robot brother for chewing through his school backpack (again) and realized that there wasn't even any reason for Robotboy to _have_ to stay at home anymore. Tommy and Lola collectively had decided that they could finally trust the Bjorns and it was safe for Bjornbot to go to school with them again, seeing as more than half of the students and staff couldn't seem to tell the difference between an android and a human being anyway.

Tommy had also talked with Bjorn and got him to promise he would look after Bjornbot and make sure he didn't do anything reckless or draw attention to himself. He trusted that Bjorn would make sure of that; he was very excited to have his robot brother attending school with him again. He felt much safer with him around and Tommy knew he wasn't willing to jeopardize that.

Despite all of his suspicions, in the end Tommy just sighed and gave his small robot friend a pat on the head.

"Okay." He said softly. "You rest at home. You can watch TV and play as many games as you want. We can talk when I get back, okay?"

Robotboy gave a small beep and nodded. He felt like something inside of him was being crushed. He felt awful that Tommy was so worried about him. He didn't deserve it, he felt.

 _But how could he tell him the truth?_

As per usual, he watched from the window as Tommy and their two house guests left the house. As they crossed the road, Bjornbot turned and saw him in the window and excitedly waved goodbye. Robotboy gave a gentle wave back, feeling himself get a little warmer inside. Despite all that was going on, he still felt consistent joy whenever he caught evidence of how far Bjornbot had come since they had first met. He never imagined that he would feel completely comfortable leaving Tommy with him, let alone with Bjorn as well.

In fact, he was actually happy that Tommy and Bjorn got along now. It made him glad to see Tommy talk excitedly with him about robotics and science and other things that he didn't really talk about with Gus or Lola for fear of boring them.

It wasn't long until the guilt crept back though and he remembered that he had lied to Tommy. He had lied about something pretty big, too.

* * *

As soon as he was sure they were out of sight, the small robot made his way to the back garden. They could no longer use the garage; Dwight would go in there every morning to get into his car and every evening when he came back from work. Donnie would go in there too at random times to mess around with his dad's tools or whatever it was he was doing. It was too risky. His _less conspicuous_ sibling could easily be discovered.

No one ever went into the shed at the bottom of their garden, however.

Robotboy opened the shed door and was faced with the daunting reality of the situation he was in now.

Protoboy was sat on top of a stack of plastic boxes, surrounded by shredded bits of paper. He was in the process of ripping a fresh comic in half when Robotboy sprung up quickly and snatched it from him.

"No!" He yelled firmly. " _Read_ comic! No destroy!"

His slightly bigger brother just glared at him angrily. **"PROTO BORED. ROBOTBOY SAY: NO MOVE. WHAT PROTO** _ **SUPPOSED**_ **TO DO?"**

Robotboy sighed and began sweeping up the ripped bits of paper that covered the shed floor. Yet _another_ thing he was going to have to explain to Tommy. When he eventually _did_ tell him that Protoboy was still very much active.

"They were Tommy comics." He said sadly. "And Protoboy destroy them."

Protoboy stared at one of the visible comic strips that hadn't been swept up yet.

" **PROTO TRY READ."**

"Really?"

" **YES. 0 MESSAGES DETECTED WITHIN COMIC BOOK IMAGES."**

Robotboy blinked and suddenly couldn't help but giggle. He remembered when _he_ was that clueless about human entertainment. Perhaps he should have explained what to do with the comics a little better.

"No!" He laughed as his brother's red optical sensors narrowed in irritation. "Pictures tell story, then you read text. It all make sense."

Judging by the way his brother was glaring at a torn image of what looked like Godzilla eating a person, he figured that it was going to be a while before Protoboy understood. It looked like he was losing focus now anyway.

" **TAKE PROTO SEE DEAR NOW!"**

Robotboy shook his head at the command.

"Proto forget? Ask nice."

Protoboy seemed to visibly cringe, before it clicked within him once more that the only reason he was even able to ask was because Robotboy had saved his life. He had disobeyed their father's orders to destroy him. The reasons his little brother had given were hard for him to understand, something about family and guilt, but he understood that whether he liked it or not, he owed his Robotboy his life now.

Even if he _was_ weak and had been corrupted by emotion and genuinely enjoyed playing board games with humans.

Protoboy glanced to the ground and muttered,

" **Take Proto see Dear, please."**

"Good!" His smaller brother's thrusters propelled him up with excitement and he clapped his hands. "Never heard brother talk so soft before."

" **SILENCE! PROTO WANT SEE DEAR."**

Landing back onto the ground, Robotboy wrung his metal hands nervously.

"Robotboy not so sure if should take brother out yet-"

" **-PROTO BORED!"**

The smaller machine winced at the sound of his brother's fist coming down hard on the plastic containers he had been sitting in. Yes, he did agree that it must not be nice for him to be stuck in a shed all day for what was coming up to about three days now. The trigger happy robot had even surprised Robotboy and hadn't used any weapons or superactivated or left the area of his confinement at all.

It may have been down to the repeated reminder that he had the Professor on 'speed dial' and he wouldn't hesitate to call him if Protoboy decided to do anything shady again. He knew that this time, there would be no coming back for him. Robotboy still chose to have hope in him.

He just hoped that Tommy would forgive him. He hoped that all his friends would be able to forgive him. He couldn't exactly just get rid of Protoboy now. Above all, he didn't _want_ to.

"Robotboy have idea. Let try?" He proposed.

His older brother looked slightly more interested. **"IF YES, LET PROTO GO OUT?"**

Robotboy nodded. _Hopefully._ As if afraid that someone might see, he opened his chest compartment slowly and took out a small chip that he had been hiding there. Protoboy eyed it suspiciously.

"No worry." The smaller brother reassured him before he could jump in with questions or defiance. "Trust Robotboy?"

" **WILL CHANGE PROTOBOY?"**

Robotboy thought for a moment before shaking his head.

"No change. Is just...enhancement. Robotboy have chip just like this one." He knew because it was one of _his_ spare emotion chips. He wasn't exactly lying. It wouldn't change the nature or personality that Protoboy's AI had built up. It wouldn't affect his memories. "Will make you better. Maybe, Tommy accept you then. Maybe Moshimo accept you. Maybe will understand. Trust Robotboy do this? Then we go out."

Protoboy wasn't sure if he wanted his brother to insert this unknown 'enhancement' chip into his system. He hadn't been upgraded or undergone maintenance since he was kidnapped by Kamikazi. It had been a very long time since he had gotten anything new. Sure, his dear repaired him when he was badly damaged during his fights with Robotboy but never added anything new. He had always been the same.

He glared into his brother's hopeful blue optic sensors and realised that if he let him, he would finally get to leave this damp human shed. The other option was just blasting through the roof and waiting for Moshimo to inevitably find him and use his deactivation ray which he had no defence against.

What was the worst a tiny chip like that could do anyway?

" **OKAY."** The battle robot agreed at last. **"PROTOBOY ACCEPT CHIP."**


	15. i don't care i don't care

From behind the shadowed cover of the school's bike shed, the resident bully was finishing up his favorite morning activity; tormenting whichever young kid happened to make the mistake of walking past their hideout.

Kurt backed up and leant against the wall, counting the money he had stolen from his latest victim while he left Stu and Mookie to further rough the young boy up. Of course, he had to make sure these children didn't ever decide to get brave and fight back. As much as he loved to frighten those weaker than him, there _were_ a lot more of them than him and his two friends. He'd seen _a Bug's Life_ ; that didn't end well for the grasshoppers.

He grunted in irritation once he realized that today's selected loser didn't even have that much cash on him. Probably wouldn't even be enough to buy an ice pop. Even the sadist's favorite activity had brought him no satisfaction today.

Kurt pocketed the coins and motioned for the other two to let the squirming child go. He was bored already.

As soon as Stu had released the kid from his grip he wasted no time scurrying off and camouflaging himself within the crowd of kids in the playground. He _certainly_ wasn't ever gonna walk past the bike shed again.

Mookie hopped up beside Kurt and eyed his pocket excitedly.

"How much, how much?"

"Basically _nothing_." The blonde growled in the shorter boy's face, causing him to cease his eager bouncing. "Can't you morons do _anythin'_ right? You could've at least gotten one of the rich kids."

Stu and Mookie shared a confused glance and collectively decided not to bring up the fact it was Kurt who had singled out the unfortunate child in the first place. They generally weren't the sharpest, but Kurt had already yelled at them enough during the time period between registration and break for them to realize he was more irritated than usual on this particular day.

"So did you see the killer robot?" Stu asked, quickly changing the subject. "That one your dad was talkin' about last week?"

"No. Dad was just bein' paranoid. _Again_. Nothin' happened." Kurt rolled his eyes at the memory. "Stop askin' me about the damn stupid robot; it probably doesn't even exist."

Mookie looked up from dashing stones against the wall. "Did your dad gets pictures though?"

" _No!_ It doesn't exist, idiot! How many times I gotta tell you? If either of you bring up that stupid fake robot again I'm gonna dash you in the trash compactor. I had to stay in that lame bunker for like two hours-"

"Oh, Bambi's coming over." Mookie had completely blocked out Kurt's furious ranting and drew attention to the blonde cheerleader who had separated from her friends and was heading towards them. "I hope she got snacks."

"Shut up." Kurt muttered, now lowering his tone considerably.

"Hey, guys." Bambi greeted them automatically and Stu and Mookie smiled back. They were always nice to Kurt's girlfriend. Probably because they were honestly a little scared of her; she was the only person they knew who could genuinely keep Kurt under control. Not even his dad struck fear into him on the level an angry Bambi could.

She looked up at Kurt and blinked her giant blue eyes expectantly. "So?"

"So...?" He repeated, titling his head in confusion.

"You're still coming tomorrow, right? You haven't, like, made any _important_ plans? Like, running around that abandoned railway or whatever it is you guys do after school."

Kurt glanced briefly at Stu for any hint as to what his girlfriend was talking about. Stu looked towards Mookie who had already gotten distracted and was sitting cross-legged on the floor, scratching marks into the ground with a sharp rock.

Bambi's smile twisted into an annoyed pout. "You _forgot!_ "

"Nah, 'course not." Kurt laughed uneasily. "…forgot what?"

"Ugh! You jerk!" The blonde girl stamped her foot. "I told you like fifty hundred times! The National Schools' Cheerleading Championships are being held here, you _said_ you'd come watch me!"

"Oh! Oh, yeah. That. Yeah, I'm still gonna come to that-"

Bambi had already made a sharp turn and was storming off. "Forget it! I'll cheer for myself! Jerk."

Kurt watched her re-join her friends and immediately begin ranting to them as they all walked off together. He sighed and pulled his hat over his eyes. _Now_ Bambi was mad at him _and_ he didn't have enough stolen money to buy an ice pop.

"What a lame day." Kurt muttered.

"I didn't remember Bambi had a contest tomorrow." Stu said, hoping to reassure him somehow. Neither he nor Mookie really knew what to do when Kurt came to school in these weird moods. He was usually so in-control and on top of things.

Mookie left his rock drawing and crawled up to them. "Yup, me neither."

"You don't fuckin' remember _anything_ , Mookie." Kurt snapped and chucked a large rock at the bike shed. "I'm gonna go find Bambi. Do what you want, I don't care."

The two boys watched their self-appointed leader skulk into the playground in search of the irked cheerleader.

"Why d'you suppose he's so mad today?" Stu asked quietly, to which his shorter friend shrugged.

"Maybe he _really_ wanted that ice pop?"

"Yeah. Me too."

"Wanna skip school n' get some from the store? Maybe then Kurt'll stop yellin'."

"Hey, good idea!" The larger boy nodded enthusiastically. "You're so smart, Mookie."

"Yuh, I know. Let's see how much candy we can fit in my hat this time!"

* * *

Groups of kids stepped out of the way as Kurt stormed through the school halls, fists clenched. He certainly looked like he was on his way to bang someone in the face; any sensible person would be wary of getting in his path.

 _C'mon, man! Why are you so worked up?_

Kurt prided himself on keeping his demeanor cool and collected; there was nothing more threatening than stoicism, his dad always used to say.

 _Stupid idiot dad._

All he had been talking about for the past few days was the robot he had apparently 'seen with his own eyes', before he put their entire household on lock down. It was _always_ something to do with robots or aliens or some other weird thing that he hoped would be the key to getting a promotion. If it wasn't already bad enough hearing him talking _constantly_ about the giant blue robot weapon, now there was a giant brown robot weapon as well?

Stu and Mookie thought his dad was so cool. They could probably talk for _hours_ about how they wished they could be cool secret government agents like his dad if he didn't stop them. In fact, they were probably doing that _right now_.

Kurt elbowed some poor girl out of the way to combat the embarrassing thoughts that were creeping back into his head again. Embarrassing, mushy thoughts that he would rather die before telling anyone, not even Bambi.

Stu's parents were so nice, he thought. He had no idea what his parents even did all day as they didn't have stable jobs as far as he knew, but his mom always fed him so well whenever he went to Stu's house. She would let him stay over for as many days as he wanted. Heck, whenever he had arguments with his dad, Kurt didn't even have to ask Stu's mom if he could just show up at their house and stay there for a few days. Their house was so welcoming that he didn't even care if Stu would put on entire series' of _My Little Pony_ in their entirety. He would say it was for his little sister but Kurt knew it wasn't.

He felt even worse about envying Mookie's family. They lived right below the poverty line, which was always a bleak contrast to Kurt's own home life. He had about five siblings - or was it six? Were there twins? God knows. Mookie had said once that his dad was in prison and his mom had to look after the younger children so struggled to provide for them on welfare. Their food situation was often awful; Mookie would instinctively make sure his siblings ate first even if it meant going to school malnourished almost every day. He wondered if Mookie ever noticed that he and Stu always deliberately brought too much food at lunchtime so there would always be leftovers for him.

Kurt had really been looking forward to going to the cinema with his dad. But of course, he had to go do his _important government job_. Catching flying brown robots, or whatever.

Too busy internally chanting, " _I don't care! I don't care!",_ Kurt ran right into Tommy's back.

The much smaller blonde boy yelped and spun around. Kurt didn't display it, but he was just as surprised. He had been completely in his own head for a minute.

"S-sorry." Tommy backed up, cowering under Kurt's glare. Tommy was with that weird, suit wearing kid who he could have mugged the previous week if his dad hadn't have called him.

"Watch where you're going, loser." Kurt muttered and shoved past them.

He _did_ think about punishing Tommy for being in his way, but he remembered noticing Bjorn's brother wandering around earlier with Gus. For some reason, Gus was giving him a tour of the canteen. If Kurt's memory served him correctly, he and Bjorn were identical in regards to build but he certainly didn't want to fight his weird brother again. Even if he _did_ look like he was constantly wearing silver body paint and only seemed to yell random foreign words, Kurt remembered him being _freakishly_ strong. That was one battle he wasn't prepared to get himself involved in.

"Oh, Kurt!" The taller boy stopped upon hearing his voice called. He looked back nonchalantly. Why was Tommy talking to him?

"What d'you _want?_ " He snapped.

"Uh." Tommy rubbed the back of his head uncertainly while Bjorn just continued to scowl in his direction. "I was just wondering if everything was okay? I, uh, heard you talking to your dad on the phone last week. Something about a robot-"

"Will everyone just _stop_ asking me about that damn robot!" Kurt suddenly exploded, causing Tommy to step back a bit. Bjorn let out an involuntary squeak. "How'd you even _know_ about that? How'd you even understand what we were talkin' about?"

"Uh…I read about it! On the internet." Tommy said quickly before Bjorn could open his mouth and probably spill everything in the process. Kurt raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. I thought it was all conspiracy nonsense but then I remembered you and your dad talking about something real similar! I also read that the robot's been destroyed, so you don't have to worry about it anymore!"

Kurt's brow furrowed in disgust. _Tommy_ thought he was _worried?_ What kind of weakling did he take him for?

"Correct!" Bjorn grinned. "The threat has been neutralised. Good riddance! Thank _goodness_ we never have to see that rampaging maniac ever again. I mean! Thank goodness nobody _else_ has to see that robot who, going by the available online information, was _said_ to be a rampaging maniac-"

Tommy swiftly kicked the back of Bjorn's shoe and muttered, " _Shut up, Wackjob_."

Kurt stared down at them, still in a visible state of confusion. "You losers are so weird…"

Suddenly and without warning, the entire building shook around them as the sound of a huge explosion rung from outside. Kurt jumped in shock and spun round to the doorway; kids and staff alike had already begun screaming and pouring inside the school, running from the direction of the deafening sound.

"What that heck was that?" Tommy was by now, fairly used to frequent explosions after all he had had to deal with after becoming best friends with Robotboy. Bjorn had hidden behind him and was trembling slightly, whereas Kurt was frozen, staring through the open doors at the fireball in the playground.

"I never thought I'd say this," Tommy began, "but I _really_ hope Bjornbot did that."

Bjorn nodded in agreement.

On top of all the chaos and people smashing into them as they rushed as far away from the explosion as they could, Tommy heard Kurt finally choke out under his breath, "Bambi…oh, _God_ , w _here's Bambi?_ "

Tommy had never seen Kurt look so helpless and scared. Wasn't he just about to beat them both up just a few moments ago?

"Go get somewhere safe, Kurt!" Tommy instructed firmly. "We'll go find her!"

Leaving the bewildered boy standing in the hall, Tommy and Bjorn rushed outside into the chaotic playground. Tommy knew that every time something like this happened, there was a very large chance it was something to do with Robotboy, or by extension, him. On their way they passed Gus and Lola who were hiding under a bench.

"Hey, guys! I think school's cancelled!" Gus yelled excitedly.

Even during a crisis, Tommy instinctively retorted with, "Shut up, Gus!"

Bjorn yelped and grabbed Tommy's arm as the ground was shaken by a second explosion from behind. They watched the smoke and the golden-orange fireball rise into the air, before a horribly familiar shape emerged in the sky, silhouetted against the flames.

" _What?_ " Tommy gawped in disbelief. "But… _how?_ "

" **PROTOBOY NEED DEAR. PROTOBOY NEED DEAR."**

The kids watched, frozen, as the battle robot turned to face them and started his monotonic yelling, his blaster cannons pointed straight at the playground.

Gus screamed and leaped up, hitting his head on the bench. "Every man for himself! It's Protoboy's ghost!"


End file.
